Ofgem to investigate Community Energy Scheme UK's solar sales practices

• The sales practices of the Community Energy Scheme UK are being brought into question with the opening of an investigation by energy regulator Ofgem.

Community Energy Scheme UK is an arrangement in between Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Community Energy Scheme UK Limited (CES), with CES mounting solar PV on Stoke's social housing roofs and afterwards marketing the electrical power from the panels to the renters.

Ofgem's investigation is to check out whether the firm breached consumer protection policies, consisting of potential violations of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Nonetheless, Ofgem mentioned that the opening of the examination doesn't indicate it has made any type of searchings for about non-compliance.

The Community Energy Scheme was first created by Solarplicity, which piloted it with Stoke-on-Trent City Council in 2017 before revealing strategies to broaden it country-wide in 2018. A year later, the energy distributor went bust adhering to a provisional order from Ofgem that prohibited Solarplicity from handling brand-new consumers for three months unless it dramatically improved its customer care, an order the vendor blamed for its collapse however which really did not influence the Community Energy Scheme.

In 2020, the scheme gave its participants a settlement break for April, Might and June, with this made to help the 4,500 community energy scheme members to survive the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An agent for Community Energy Scheme claimed: "We are committed to continuous improvement and we have actually always willingly offered Ofgem with information. We, along with the City Council, will remain to deal with and help Ofgem throughout this examination. As a firm, we devote significant time and resource to ensuring compliance with all regulations and regulations, that includes the evaluation of our literary works and contracts by numerous attorneys, along with robust audit and quality assurance checks throughout the customer experience.

" We are proud to offer a tidy energy service that guarantees customers constantly obtain the lowest market value for their energy use and we are dedicated to collaborating with all of those involved to see to it that the procedure is as clear and valuable as possible."