Utility companies are basically non interest paying banks. Not even a prize draw like premium bonds.

Ovo used to pay you interest on your balance

Probably a good populist move for the government would be to require them to add interest onto balances they hold. I'm sure there are very good reasons why it is a bad idea though, or at least there are reasons of some sort.

Not certain it still does but OVO were paying me 5% on my credit balance.

So this is going to be me exposing my own stupidity I'm sure, but what is the actual reason why the utility company can't measure how much I use and then bill me for that, rather than the somewhat baroque approaches they use?So this is going to be me exposing my own stupidity I'm sure, but what is the actual reason why the utility company can't measure how much I use and then bill me for that, rather than the somewhat baroque approaches they use?