£13.9m power penalty

NEW businesses and housing developments are let down when they try to connect to the electricity grid, the energy regulator has warned.

Ofgem is threatening to penalise the six companies responsible for connecting new buildings to the tune of £13.9m in total.

It said customers some- times struggled to get updates on connection requests quickly enough, and were given too little information in particular around costs.

Ofgem said it will make a decision on penalties for the firms – including UK Power Networks and Northern Powergrid – by the end of November.