Gas (Supplier of Last Resort) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009

Explanatory note

Reproduced verbatim from the instrument as published on legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). The note is prepared by the responsible government department and is not part of the instrument itself.

These Regulations implement, in part, Article 3(3) of Directive 2003/55/ EC by inserting into the Gas (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 a new Article 24A. This new Article helps to protect final gas customers and ensure high level of consumer protection by giving the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation (“the Authority”) the power to appoint a Supplier of Last Resort (“the SoLR”) to supply gas to customers in circumstance where their gas supplier (“the defaulting supplier”) has his supply licence revoked and can no longer supply to them. The new Article enables the Authority in making this appointment to specify the terms and conditions under which the SoLR will supply gas to the customer. This includes, in particular, provision relating to price. A contract for the supply of gas between customer and the SoLR will be deemed to exist from the date of the supply of gas commences to the date the direction ceases to have effect.