Energy firm National Grid plans major change to its call out service
NATIONAL Grid is planning to cut out-of-hours repair calls to homes without power — as it is cheaper to pay the fines.
The firm, which made £5billion in profits last year, has justified the move by saying such work can be noisy and disruptive.
National Grid, responsible for power connections to homes, currently says a worker will attend within three hours if notified between 7am and 7pm on weekdays or 9am and 5pm at weekends.
It is fined £35 per customer if it fails to attend.
And if any home is cut-off for more than 12 hours, a fine of £90 has to be paid to customers.
But sources claim the company has calculated the fines may be cheaper than paying after-hours staff wages.
A source said: “This will mean some customers will stay off-supply for the whole night, just to save money.
“The company always used to put customers first above cost but it’s all about cost-saving now. It’s wrong.”
A spokesman for National Grid said: “We are committed to providing excellent customer service and know that any disruption to our service is unacceptable.
“We have made a public pledge to minimise any disruption caused by unscheduled power supply interruptions – and take this commitment very seriously. Especially for more vulnerable customers on our Priority Services Register.
“Carrying out overnight roadworks to restore power supplies can be noisy and disruptive, so we are considering whether in a small number of circumstances it would be better overall customer service to delay these repair works until first thing the following morning. No decision has been made.
“If we do make this change it will be on a trial basis, and we will continue to honour our commitment to work to restore customers’ power supply within 12 hours under the Guaranteed Standards of Performance scheme.”