Blue NRG pays $436,176 in penalties for alleged ‘guaranteed service level payment’ failures

Energy retailer Blue NRG Pty Ltd (Blue NRG) has paid $436,176 in penalties for allegedly breaching the Victorian energy rules¹ related to guaranteed service level payments between July 2021 and June 2022.

The Essential Services Commission gathered evidence that Blue NRG allegedly failed to credit guaranteed service level payments totalling over $125,000 to the bills of 427 customers within the required timeframes. The 1,092 payments had been made by energy distributors to Blue NRG, who was then required to credit the payments to the bills of affected customers.

The alleged contraventions deprived customers of the timely receipt of guaranteed service level payments. While most customers were ultimately credited the relevant amounts by Blue NRG after the failures were identified, some customers who had changed retailer and could not be contacted did not receive the payments they were entitled to.

Commissioner Sitesh Bhojani says the commission introduced the obligations on retailers to apply payments within set timeframes in July 2021 to better protect customers from the inconvenience caused when guaranteed service levels are not met.

“Victoria’s energy rules exist to protect consumers accessing essential electricity and gas. When distributors fail to meet guaranteed service levels, customers deserve timely acknowledgement of the inconvenience. Retailers should have robust systems and processes in place to ensure that guaranteed service level payments from distributors are passed on to customers within the required timeframe.”

Electricity distributors in Victoria must meet minimum service levels for customers, known as guaranteed service levels. The guaranteed service levels cover events such as low supply reliability, delayed connections or where distributors are late to scheduled appointments.

When a distributor fails to meet the guaranteed service levels, they must make guaranteed service level payments to affected customers. Distributors make guaranteed service level payments to the customer’s electricity retailer, which must then apply the payments to customer accounts within the prescribed timeframe.