In its submission to the review into the energy regulator, by UK Government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Comhairle has highlighted OFGEM’s inaction across a number of key areas.

Councillor Donald Crichton, Chair of the Comhairle’s Sustainable Development Committee said: 

“To act in the interest of consumers across the Western Isles OFGEM needs to be reformed.  The Comhairle’s response to this review reflects our frustration with OFGEM. Whether it is Grid connectivity, Renewable Energy build-out, Fuel Poverty or RTS meters, we’ve found OFGEM to be unresponsive and unhelpful. The question has often been asked in the Comhairle Chambers, ‘Who regulates the regulator’ as, in our experience, OFGEM has not effectively discharged its duties and, too often, has allowed the Transmission Owner and others to act to the detriment of island communities.  The time has come to reform the Regulator and we hope the Government will take on board our evidence and take this opportunity to do so”.

The Comhairle has highlighted OFGEM’s inaction around Grid connection for the Outer Hebrides. Over a period of 15 years, the ‘Regulated Monopoly’ Transmission Owner, SSEN Transmission, declined to submit a Needs Case to OFGEM for an Outer Hebrides Grid Connection despite the fact that 450MW of Onshore Wind generation was already consented, contracted to Grid and ‘shovel ready’ in the islands. To the Comhairle, this represents a failure to regulate by OFGEM, leading to an unacceptable delay in connecting the islands.

Other shortcomings of OFGEM highlighted by the Comhairle include an obsession with impact on the consumer to the exclusion of other statutory duties around Security of UK Energy Supply and Sustainable Economic Growth.

With the Highlands and Islands now facing the highest electricity prices in the UK and correspondingly high levels of Fuel Poverty, the Comhairle questions OFGEM’s appetite to address these inequalities. OFGEM’s response to the idea of a discounted ‘Island Tariff’, available to areas suffering the highest Fuel Poverty levels while, potentially, contributing the greatest levels of Renewable Energy generation to the UK Grid, has been lukewarm, say the Comhairle.

In its response, the Comhairle also referenced the growing Radio Teleswitch (RTS) crisis where 2,400 RTS meters in the Outer Hebrides still require to be swopped out for Smart Meters by June 2025 to ensure storage heating customers do not lose supply. To date, OFGEM has done little to address this crisis.

Finally, the Comhairle’s response criticises OFGEM’s per kW ‘Price Cap. While it makes a good headline, there is little benefit for customers in the Outer Hebrides where climatic exposure and poor energy efficiency across the housing stock mean energy consumption can be twice that quoted by OFGEM for an ‘average UK home’.  Customers with double the consumption face double the bills regardless of any per kW ‘Price Cap’.