Restaurant owner hit with £200 daily energy charge after being caught up in regulation change

The service is intended to speed up the switching process ensuring a change in supplier occurs within five working days. However, for Dobman it meant her switch was not actioned and left her drifting into a variable plan.

She said: "At the moment I am being charged a variable rate because I am out of contract. Nobody told me anything about this. It's not right that the customer should be paying for an industry problem that is completely out of my control."

The restaurant owner has filed complaints to both her existing and new supplier, both which sit under Centra, as well as Ofgem, which has led to her current supplier pausing direct debit payments until the dispute is resolved.

However, she is still required to pay the additional fees during this time, which means that her 55 cover restaurant will be "running at a loss until the transfer is completed", which she has been told could take up to 10 working days.

She added: "I am losing sleep over something that is outside my control, particularly when I've got no date as to when the switch might happen."

The renewal offer was already a 60% increase in price from her previous rate and Dodman expects her electricity bills to reach a minimum of £72,000 a year.

She added: "As everybody knows, prices for supplies and costs are going up all the time and this is just another cost that we cannot bear. Our wages have gone up 25% to 30% because nationwide there's a shortage of hospitality [staff]. Customers will only pay so much, so we keep putting up our prices a little bit. That's why I say this electricity [situation] is like a nail in the coffin. It's a real struggle."

The Caterer has contacted Centra (British Gas) and Ofgem for comment.