Avro Energy is free to take on new customers after it became a Data Communications Company (DCC) user and rectified its smart meter rollout requirement breach.
Ofgem has been in discussions with the challenger supplier for several months as it discovered Avro was not meeting its licence conditions.
The regulator issued a final order to Avro on 3 April which required it to become a DCC user no later than 25 July in order to avoid a customer ban.
Ofgem has now confirmed it “received satisfactory evidence” from the Smart Energy Code Administrator and Secretariat on 14 June, which outlined Avro had completed “all the required steps” and met the final order.
Avro is “able to acquire new customers and add new customer accounts by upgrading to dual fuel,” Ofgem revealed.
All suppliers were required to become DCC users by 25 November 2017 to help drive the installation of next generation SMETS2 meters.
The supplier failed to become a user by the deadline and was still not a user by 8 March this year. On that date Ofgem said it proposed to issue a final order under the electricity and gas acts.
Ofgem was concerned by Avro’s behaviour and the fact it remained “non-compliant”.
“Had the non-compliance been allowed to continue, there was a likelihood of increasing numbers of customers with smart meters suffering harm by either switching to Avro and losing their smart functionality or, for existing customers, remaining without smart functionality longer than was necessary,” Ofgem said.
Avro made two written representations to the regulator. In the first, Avro said it had not sought to avoid compliance and argued that the final order was not warranted, because there were “mitigating circumstances”.
The supplier offered to voluntarily impose the sales ban on itself if it did not achieve DCC user status before 26 May 2019.
In the second, made after it became aware that the date on which first generation SMETS1 meters could be enrolled into the DCC had recently been put back, Avro argued that, because of this delay, the date on which the proposed sales ban in the final order should begin should also be put back.
Ofgem said it considered the representations “carefully” but concluded that the final order, including a ban of new customers from 26 May “was justified”.
The regulator decided to push ahead as it lacked confidence in Avro’s “willingness to engage” until the matter was escalated.
After the final issue was ordered, Avro was required to become a DCC user by no later than 25 July and to notify the regulator within 24 hours of completion of each milestone.
It was also ordered not to acquire any new customers or add any customer accounts by upgrading to duel fuel from 26 May until it was able to demonstrate it was a DCC user.
Avro Energy scored 2.7 stars out of five in the last Citizens Advice star rating table, which ranks the customer service of energy suppliers.
The DCC said it is supporting energy suppliers with their smart meter rollout plans. The latest figures show more than 1.2 million SMETS2 devices are now on the network.