They are currently set to cut off electricity supply to a home at -£1. “In Northern Ireland, the keypad top up system is a centralised system controlled by the network operator, not Electric Ireland.
“The rate is currently set at £1 of emergency credit. This is a condition enforced by the technical limitations of the system in NI.
“There have been industry-wide discussions about increasing levels of emergency credit, which Electric Ireland is supportive of. However, any change is dependent on agreement across all suppliers and implementation of this on to the meters which are owned and controlled by the network operator.
While NIE Networks “is responsible for the installation and technical operation of the electricity meters” they say “suppliers determine the policy and tariffs in relation to the supply of electricity and the meters”.
“When the customer’s keypad meter runs out of money (the meter buzzer sounds a warning at this point) they have a window during which to purchase a supplier top up (online or from a point of sale),” they added.
“The free vend is invoked by pressing the zero key on the keypad and will be debited off the next customer vend by the relevant supplier.
“The meter will not disconnect during the evening, weekends or bank holidays even if the customer has zero credit on their meter. As soon as any of these windows pass, the buzzer will sound as described above.
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