SCOTTISH Power has apologised to an elderly disabled woman in Kendal after she was charged thousands of pounds due to a faulty smart meter. 

77-year-old Lynda Davis, who has pulmonary heart disease, was being charged large sums of money because she was receiving estimates - even though she had a smart meter installed. 

Mrs Davis, who lives on her own, used a smart meter that was originally installed by a different energy provider. Scottish Power was using this one to calculate her bills until they installed their own one in August 2023. 

A spokesperson from Scottish Power said that while Mrs Davis had the old smart meter they were not receiving all of the readings from old meter, and this was causing some of her bills to be based on estimated usage. 

She said: "I've never been in arrears before. I have been really badly worrying about that. Being in debt I had hardly any money left. If they keep taking money off me I would have been completely skint."

Mrs Davis went to a community hub session run by Gateway Church, which runs at Kendal Town Hall every Wednesday. 

Mrs Davis said that she was up to £6000 in debt at one point, and eventually she could not keep paying thousands of pounds as she would not have had any money left. 

The Green Doctor is a charity organisation which helps household reduce carbon and save money on their household bills. They investigated Mrs Davis's meter and discovered the issue with it. 

Scottish Power said that Mrs Davis was only in debit for more than £1000 on one occasion in the summer of 2022, and this data was based on estimated readings from the old meter. After the new smart meter was installed in August 2023, it switched to a large credit balance on the account. 

A ScottishPower spokesperson said: "We’re sorry for the issues experienced by Ms Davis as a result of problems with her old meter, which generated estimated rather than actual bills. We've since replaced this meter and been able to accurately track Ms Davis’ energy usage and costs, which has resulted in the refund of a large credit balance on the account. We take the billing of customer accounts seriously and the new meter now gives her more control and visibility of her energy consumption and bills."

Mrs Davis confirmed that her bills had gone down significantly in recent months.