At our Quaker meeting house we have tried to help the planet by swapping our gas boiler for an air source heat pump. We asked our supplier, Crown Gas & Power, to end our supply, and were surprised to be told that we had to keep paying the 99p a day standing charge until the meter was removed.
However, the big shock came when it charged us £486 to remove the meter. We queried this, but were told it was correct. We had to pay it, otherwise we would have to keep paying 99p a day.
For a qualified gas engineer, it is a simple job to disconnect the supply pipe, and cap it off safely. In the event, it took one man less than an hour to do it. It seems to us that their charge is exorbitant.
The Energy Networks Association says some firms do this for free. Can we challenge it?
JJ, Bristol
As I am a fan of saying in this column, no good deed goes unpunished.
It should be free and easy to remove a gas meter but alas that is not the case as Richard Lowes of the Regulatory Assistance Project, which is involved in clean energy policy, confirms.
“Non-residential supplies are regulated differently to residential supplies and, in either case, it is up to the supplier how much they charge,” he says. “Octopus Energy is notable for not charging for domestic gas meter removals and other suppliers should follow suit – many are installing heat pumps, for goodness sake.”
Crown Gas & Power says its charge was in line with the national average and referred us to the Citizens Advice website, which says it could cost anything from £400 to more than £1,000 depending on “how much work needs to be done”.
Regarding the standing charges, it explained that “whether gas is being consumed or not, meters require monitoring and management” and this covered the cost of that.
It seems to me that the energy regulator, Ofgem, needs to do something about this grey area.
In the meantime, if you are a homeowner switching over and considering a heat pump in future, look for a supplier that will remove the old meter for free.
