Brits face paying up to £100m a year extra on energy bills ‘due to meters wrongly installed BACKWARDS at offshore wind farms’
British households could be paying up to £100 million more each year on their energy bills after meters at offshore wind farms were reportedly installed the wrong way round, according to a report highlighted by the Daily Mail. The error is said to have caused inaccurate readings of electricity generated at sea, with the cost of the mistake ultimately being passed on to consumers through their bills.
Full details of how the fault occurred, which wind farms were affected, and who is responsible for the error were not available in the source material provided. The figure of £100 million a year represents the estimated additional cost to billpayers, though the article's underlying detail on timelines, the companies involved and any corrective action being taken could not be confirmed from the text supplied.
- Wrongly fitted meters at offshore wind farms may be inflating bills
- Extra cost to consumers estimated at up to £100m annually
- Full details of the fault and responsible parties unconfirmed
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Households could see their electricity bills rise by as much as £100 million a year in total, according to a report cited by the Daily Mail, after equipment used to measure electricity from offshore wind farms was reportedly fitted incorrectly. Meters are used to record how much power a wind farm generates so that costs and payments across the energy system can be calculated correctly, so a fault in how they were installed could throw off those figures.
Offshore wind has become a significant part of Britain's electricity supply in recent years, with the costs of building, running and maintaining these farms typically recovered through charges added to household energy bills. Because of this, errors or extra costs anywhere in the system, including with equipment like meters, can end up being passed on to consumers rather than absorbed by energy companies.
At this stage, it is not clear from the available reporting exactly which wind farms, companies or time period are involved, or what steps, if any, are being taken to correct the fault. The £100 million figure is described as an estimate of the potential extra cost to billpayers rather than a confirmed final amount.