Three of Britain’s biggest gas network operators have coughed up £8 million after failing to respond quickly enough to gas emergencies.
Cadent Gas, SGN Scotland and SGN Southern admitted breaching Ofgem rules by missing targets for attending gas leaks within set timescales in 2022-23.
The firms are meant to reach 97% of incidents within one or two hours, depending on how serious the leak is.
The companies self-reported the failure before submitting their official figures and have now agreed to make voluntary payments to Ofgem’s Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Fund, which supports vulnerable energy customers.
SGN Southern took the biggest hit, handing over £5.8 million. Cadent will pay £1.5 million, while SGN Scotland will stump up £700,000.
The regulator said the performance shortfall posed “potentially serious” risks.
Cathryn Scott, Ofgem’s Director of Market Oversight and Enforcement, said:
The potential risk to households and businesses if gas leaks aren’t investigated quickly is significant, so it’s right that the companies involved have acknowledged the seriousness of missing these targets.
“We’re confident the companies have improved their systems and processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again and have demonstrated their commitment to this by meeting their targets in the two years since the breach.”
The worst offender was SGN’s Southern network, missing the 97% mark by 5.1% on uncontrolled escapes and 4.1% on controlled ones.
Cadent’s North London region missed the target by 2.1% for controlled and 1.8% for uncontrolled. Its North West network slipped by 1% and 0.5% respectively.
SGN Scotland narrowly missed the target for controlled escapes by 0.4%.
Ofgem is now consulting on tighter rules. From April 2025, GDNs will need to give more detailed performance data and explain any monthly miss below the 97% threshold.
The regulator also plans to publish monthly and annual stats to boost transparency.
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