Can the natural gas supply be cut off?

Yes. The supply can be cut off when certain situations occur, such as:

• Non-payment of invoices
• Preventing access to the meter
• Fortuitous events or cases of force majeure
• Safety or service reasons
• Transfer of natural gas to third parties
• Fraudulent behaviour

In the event of a cut-off for non-payment, your supplier must give you 20 days’ written notice before interrupting your supply. The notice must tell you the reasons for the disconnection, how you can avoid it and the cost of disconnecting and restoring your supply.

If you are cut off, you should contact your supplier and ask for information on how to make the outstanding payment (you can ask to pay in instalments).

Once you have paid or signed a payment agreement, the supply must be restored within 12 hours for household consumers. This period does not include the time between 0:00 and 8:00.

You can request an urgent restoration of supply (within four hours) by paying the surcharge, which is also fixed annually by ERSE.

If you are a customer with an annual consumption up to 10 000 m³, your natural gas supply cannot be interrupted on Fridays, the day before public holidays, on public holidays or at weekends.

If there are no meter readings, can the supply be cut off?

Yes. If the distribution system operator does not access the meter for four months and the consumer does not report a reading, an extraordinary reading must be carried out.

The date for the extraordinary reading must be agreed between the consumer and the distribution system operator.

If the date is not agreed within 20 days of the consumer being notified, the supply may be cut off.

Extraordinary readings entail costs for the consumer, which are determined annually by ERSE.

Can the supply be cut off for safety or service reasons?

Yes. If the continued supply of natural gas to your home endangers the safety of people or property, or if it is necessary to carry out manoeuvres, connection, repair or maintenance work on the natural gas distribution grid, you may be left without natural gas.

Where possible (for safety reasons) and at least 36 hours in advance (for service reasons), affected consumers should be warned (individually or by other appropriate means, e.g. the media) of the natural gas supply cut off.

Contact the distribution system operator to find out the expected time for the supply to be restored.

What are fortuitous events or cases of force majeure?

These are situations that could not be foreseen or avoided outside the natural gas supply service. These situations include, for example, more intense atmospheric variations that cause an interruption in supply.

Contact the distribution system operator to find out the expected time for the supply to be restored.

Find out more about the 2022 Natural Gas Technical Quality of Service Report.