The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Update

As part of the Review of the Impact of a Gas Supply Shortage on Electricity between January 2021 and March 2022, BEIS has worked with industry partners to assess and amend the classes of customers to be prioritised in the event of a local or network gas supply emergency.

On 10 October 2022, BEIS directed Gas transporters of the updated classes (categories) of relevant customers to be included on the Priority Consumer List. The Letter of direction to Gas Transporters: ‘An update to the classes of customers to be prioritised in the event of a gas supply emergency’, can be found here.

Under the Gas Transporters Standard Licence Conditions (GTSLC), gas transporters are obliged to establish, amend and review a list of priority customers, whose gas supply is prioritised. Such priority list customers would be the last to be told to cease taking gas in the event of a gas supply emergency.

What are the Updated classes of customer?

Gas Transporter priority lists will be based on the following Updated classes of relevant customers:

• Category A: Relevant customers where a failure in the supply to their premises could put lives at risk.
• Category B: Relevant customers for which the sudden loss of gas causes or threatens to cause serious damage, for an unacceptably prolonged period, to human welfare, the environment or the security of the United Kingdom that cannot be reasonably mitigated.
• Category C: Relevant customers taking over 2 million therms (58.6 million kWh) per annum for which the sudden loss of gas would result in repair or replacement costs amounting to 10% or more of the Site Fixed Tangible Asset Value.

A Supply Meter Point to be added to the priority list as Category A or B, must have an Annual Quantity (AQ) of 732,000kWh per annum.

A Supply Meter Point to be added to the priority list as Category C, must have an Annual Quantity (AQ) of 2 million therms (58.6 million kWh) per annum.

The assessment of whether a site satisfies the criteria contained in Categories A and C rests with the gas transporter.

As per the BEIS Letter of Direction to Gas Transporters, BEIS are likely to be involved in the assessment of sites applying to be Category B.

For applications for Category C sites specifically, independent evidence, such as an insurance valuation or an audit, is required and should demonstrate that the site satisfies the class category criteria to support the gas transporters assessment of the application.

Sites that are currently recorded as Category C which could now fall outside of the proposed new criteria for Category C, will remain on the list until at least the end of March 2023.

Users who fall under any of the three updated categories, should contact their energy supplier for further information and guidance on attaining Priority Customer Status.