An energy firm accidentally sent customers trillion-dollar checks in compensation for a power cut

The checks were sent as compensation after a huge storm cut power for thousands of people across northern England and Scotland in November.

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• Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary Northern Powergrid accidentally gave customers checks for trillions of dollars.
• They were sent as compensation after a huge storm cut power for thousands of people in November.
• The 13-figure checks were down to a "clerical error," a spokesperson said.

A UK energy firm erroneously gave customers checks for trillions of dollars in compensation after a huge storm left people without power for days.

Northern Powergrid, a Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary that supplies power to some areas of northern England, paid out 13-figure checks to 74 customers, the BBC reported.

One was for more than £2.3 trillion ($3.1 trillion), the publication reported.

The UK was hit by Storm Arwen in late November, which brought strong winds, snow, and high waves to northern England and Scotland in particular. As well as disrupting traffic, the storm brought down trees and power lines, triggering power cuts that in some cases lasted for days.

The 13-figure checks were down to a "clerical error," a spokesperson for the provider told the BBC, saying that an electricity meter reference was mistakenly quoted as the payment sum.

Gareth Hughes, who had received the £2.3 trillion ($3.1 trillion) check, told the BBC that he had lost power for more than three days and had complained to Northern Powergrid after it sent him a check for £135 ($183), saying that he was entitled to more.

Hughes said that when he got the second check, "I knew it wasn't a value that could be realistic."

The spokesperson told the BBC that Northern Powergrid was investigating the error, and that it had stopped all the checks as soon as it spotted the mistake so that they couldn't be cashed in by customers.

"We thank those customers who were honest and contacted us and we have been making contact directly over the weekend with all 74 customers affected to make them aware, apologize for the error, and reassure them that a correct payment will be issued to them on Monday," the spokesperson told the BBC.

The BBC reported that thousands of properties in northern England were left without power for more than a week.

Northern Powergrid said that by Friday it had paid compensation to almost 30,000 households. "We've been robustly working through the outstanding claims and additional data needed from our customers to help us progress their compensation," it said in a statement.

In total, almost 280,000 – or around 7% – of Northern Powergrid customers suffered from power outages due to the storm. The company said that the weather conditions had led to around 1,200 concurrent reports of damage on its network.

"Storm Arwen has resulted in damage to our electricity network on a scale we have not seen for 15 years," Northern Powergrid said in an email to customers on November 29. "All of our resources have been deployed, including support from other UK network operators who are working into the night to restore power to as many people as possible."

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