Former Iresa customers wrongly told they'll be moved to Octopus Energy

Regulator Ofgem appointed renewable energy firm Octopus Energy – which currently has about 250,000 customers – to supply Iresa customers from Wednesday 1 August, after Iresa ceased trading on Friday

Octopus Energy has contacted Iresa's 90,000 account holders about the process for switching their supply, but some customers who left Iresa months ago have also been contacted about their supply being switched across.

Octopus Energy says it's investigating how the errors occurred, and will contact former customers who have been wrongly sent switching letters within the next week to confirm their supply is not changing.

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I'm no longer with Iresa but I've been contacted - what should I do?

Octopus Energy told us it was passed Iresa's database, which was supposed to hold information on all of Iresa's customers, and it then contacted these customers - though it now knows some of the data may be inaccurate, and may include customers who previously switched away from Iresa.

It says it will now be doing the following to double-check if the people it has contacted are correct:

• It will check industry databases – to see if the energy industry officially has customers it has contacted recorded as an Iresa customer. If the industry databases say you are with another supplier, it will not switch you away.  

• It will contact new occupiers – if you had moved out of a property which is supplied by Iresa and have been contacted, Octopus Energy will try to get the details of the new occupier if possible, but will arrange to cancel the account in your name.

• If you are with Iresa but didn't know – Octopus Energy will try and establish what has happened and return you to your previous supplier if possible.

For now, it is best to let Octopus Energy double-check its records, as it says it will be contacting all customers it incorrectly contacted within a week.

However, if you think you are not with Iresa, have been contacted and have not heard back within a week, or have heard back, but are still being told you're moving to Octopus Energy - it will be worth getting in touch with Octopus Energy to let it know.

You can contact Octopus Energy by calling 0330 808 1080 or by emailing hello@octopus.energy.

We've contacted Ofgem for comment and will update this story if we hear back.