Northern Powergrid Apologises To Customers For £2.3 Trillion Compensation Cheque Error

Energy distributor Northern Powergrid has apologised to dozens of customers after accidentally issuing them with Storm Arwen compensation cheques for £2.3 trillion.

The power company is in the process of paying compensation to tens of thousands of customers who suffered power blackouts when "once in a generation" winds swept across the UK in November.

One recipient took to Twitter to share a picture of the eye-watering sum and ask if the company could really afford it.

Thank you for our compensation payment @Northpowergrid for the several days we were without power following #stormarwen Before I bank the cheque however, are you 100% certain you can afford this? #trillionpounds pic.twitter.com/z5MNc2Nxl1

— Gareth Hughes (@gh230277) February 12, 2022

Gareth Hughes told Sky News:

"I knew straight away it wouldn't be honoured, but it was nice to dream for a couple of minutes."

Mr Hughes's Tweet has been liked almost 54,000 times in less than 48 hours.

Danielle Henderson says she lost electricity for a week during the storm and today received a cheque for £1,580,000,956,104.

Speaking to Sky News she said:

"When we opened the letter we laughed in all honesty — it's been a comedy of errors since the electricity went off for a week."

The supplier confirmed 74 of its customers had been given compensation cheques with an incorrect payment amount and thanked those who were "honest" about the error.

Meanwhile, a number of people responded to suggest how they would have handled the situation, with many claiming they'd have tried to cash it!

A spokeswoman for Northern Powergrid said:

"As soon as we identified the clerical error, which was caused by the electricity meter reference number being incorrectly quoted as the payment sum, we ensured all 74 customers' cheques were stopped so they could not be cashed.

"We have been investigating how this error happened and carrying out checks of previous payments.

"We thank those customers who were honest and contacted us and we have been making contact directly over the weekend (to resolve the matter)."