Utilita Energy is to pay £175,000 to the energy redress fund after it failed to meet its carbon reduction obligations under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) fuel poverty scheme.

Ofgem found that Utilita Energy failed to deliver its obligations for ECO2, the second phase of the scheme which ran from April 2015 to September 2018. 

It missed its overall target to reduce carbon emissions from customers’ homes (the Carbon Emissions Reduction Obligation or CERO) by 2%. It also missed targets for two sub-obligations – to reduce carbon emissions for vulnerable households in rural areas and to insulate homes with solid walls – by 20% and 3%, respectively.  As a result of not delivering these carbon savings, consumers, some of whom might have been vulnerable, could have missed out on savings of £30,000 on energy bills.

Utilita Energy said that its lack of monitoring led to over-delivery against some obligations and the under-delivery against others, leading to non-compliance.

Ofgem decided not to take further enfocement action after Utilita Energy agreed the redress payment, and volunteered to provide more regular updates for the next phase of the scheme, ECO3 and assure Ofgem it has processes to deliver it.