Labour and Ofgem urged to make business energy billing easier

An open letter has called on Ofgem, Labour and suppliers to improve the energy billing process.

Billing has been the largest category of energy complaints for over a decade and Ofgem’s won research in 2024 found it was the most common reason non-domestic customers complained.

Bill calculation company Optima Energy has found that more than a quarter of business bills were based on estimated reads, ahead of market-wide half-hourly settlement in May 2027.

Optima has written a letter that calls for suppliers to commit to independent assurance of billing accuracy, provide structured and machine readable invoice data, apply the one month back-billing principle without exception and give disputes raised by brokers the same timescales as customer complaints.

It is also asking for Ofgem and Labour to extend the back-billing cap to all non-domestic customers, introduce mandatory compensation for supplier-caused errors and independently verify supplier readiness for half-hourly settlement.