Ovo Energy will pay more than £10 million after the energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, found that poor monitoring of vulnerable customers with prepayment meters left them exposed to a “clear risk of harm”. The settlement package includes £7 million paid to Ofgem’s Voluntary Redress Fund – which supports households at risk from cold homes and high energy bills – along with a £3.4 million package of credit and debt relief for some of the supplier’s most vulnerable customers. A further £1.1 million is being paid to customers in the Scottish Highlands and Islands after Ofgem discovered that some rural households did not have adequate access to engineer support for more than two years, from 1 January 2022 to 1 April 2024.
Ofgem’s investigation examined how Ovo treated its existing prepayment meter (PPM) customers between 2018 and 2024, specifically focusing on customers who were already using a PPM rather than those who had meters installed without their consent. The regulator found that Ovo failed to consistently monitor and accurately record interactions with these customers, creating a risk that signs of vulnerability would be missed. In some cases, customers who ran out of credit on their PPM were not contacted by the supplier. The breaches extended to those on the Priority Services Register (PSR) – a statutory list of customers who need extra support due to age, disability, or medical conditions. While Ovo had policies in place, they were not reliably followed in practice, meaning some PSR customers were not properly identified, supported, or kept informed, increasing their risk of harm.
How Ovo Failed Vulnerable Customers
Ofgem’s ruling detailed several specific failures. Ovo did not have adequate systems to monitor and record customer contacts, making it harder to spot when a vulnerable household was in difficulty. Training materials for staff were described as unclear, inconsistent and sometimes containing conflicting guidance. The company also failed to contact some customers who had been disconnected from their energy supply for more than 72 hours and who had not responded to any communications during that time. During the investigation Ovo did take some corrective action, including making welfare visits to such disconnected customers, but the regulator found that the underlying processes were insufficient.
Cathryn Scott, Ofgem’s director of market oversight and enforcement, said: “It is clear that Ovo fell short in its support of vulnerable PPM customers, and it’s right that they’ve taken action to improve their processes. Prepayment meters are a positive choice for many customers, helping them stay in control of their energy use and reporting high levels of satisfaction – but it’s not suitable for everyone and strong monitoring must be in place to protect vulnerable consumers.”
In response, Ovo stated that it accepted its historic processes fell short of expected standards and apologised. The company said that since 2024 it had significantly improved its policies, systems and training, including implementing a new policy around identifying and supporting vulnerable customers. An Ovo spokesperson said: “Keeping our customers safe and supported is hugely important to us and we recognise there were areas where we needed to do better.”
Previous Regulatory Actions
The settlement is the latest in a series of enforcement actions against Ovo. In January 2026, the company was fined £2.77 million after failing to pass on Warm Home Discount payments to nearly 12,000 vulnerable customers on time. Of those affected, 7,726 were on the Priority Services Register and 4,066 were medically vulnerable. Ovo was also fined £8.9 million in 2020 for overcharging customers since 2015, and in March 2021 was required to pay more than £2.8 million in redress for practices that caused detriment to over 240,000 customers. Separately, Ovo overcharged nearly 11,000 households by charging above the maximum rates allowed by the energy price cap or the government’s energy price guarantee scheme between October 2022 and March 2023, with affected households receiving an average of £181 in redress.
Ovo was founded in 2009 by Stephen Fitzpatrick, a former vice president at Societe Generale and JP Morgan who later became a Tory donor. The company has faced repeated scrutiny over its treatment of customers. In a separate Market Compliance Review framework, eight other suppliers paid a combined £73.6 million in compensation, debt write-off and hardship payments for issues related to PPM installations in 2022-23.
Broader Regulatory Context
Ofgem has stepped up its oversight of the prepayment meter market in recent years. New rules made mandatory in September 2023 ban the forced installation of PPMs for certain high-risk groups, including those aged over 75 with no support at home and households with children under two. Suppliers must now make at least 10 attempts to contact a customer and conduct a welfare visit before any involuntary PPM installation.
The Ovo settlement comes as the company prepares to change hands. German energy group E.ON announced last month that it had agreed to acquire Ovo in a deal that would create Britain’s largest gas and electricity supplier by number of households served, with a combined customer base of approximately 9.6 million. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be finalised in the second half of 2026.
