As British Gas frets over losing hundreds of thousands of customers over the past six months, Amit Gudka and Hayden Wood’s energy start-up is on the opposite trajectory. Bulb Energy, the company the two friends established only four years ago, is now Britain’s biggest domestic supplier of renewable energy. The 630,000 households it serves may seem like relatively small fry when set against the total British energy market of about 27 million homes, but the rapid progress made by the London-based business places it at the larger end of the emerging companies that have set out to challenge the energy industry’s Big Six. Mr Gudka, a former energy trader at Barclays, and Mr Wood, who used to work at Bain & Company, the consultancy, set up their business after discussions revealed their shared frustrations with the industry. “I’d done a three-month project about [a Big Six supplier],” Mr Wood recalled. “I’d never seen companies so disorganised and inefficient. It was shocking to me how those companies weren’t really innovating or making things better for their customers.”
Times 1st Aug 2018 read more »
Centrica, the owner of British Gas, raised the prospect of a further rise in household energy tariffs this year after it reported a drop in operating profits in the first six months amid higher wholesale prices and cold weather. Shares in the FTSE 100 energy group fell more than 5 per cent to 144p even as it reassured investors it would maintain its full-year dividend this year. Centrica said adjusted operating profit in its consumer business fell 20 per cent to £430m in the year to the end of June 2018. The group’s UK household gas and electricity supply arm was hit by last year’s cap on tariffs for vulnerable households, the loss of customers and rising wholesale energy prices. The company has put its 20 per cent stake in a group of nuclear reactors up for sale and will start the process in September.
FT 31st July 2018 read more »
Energy market newcomer Octopus Energy will grow its accounts base by 100,000 at a stroke by picking up the customers left in limbo after the collapse of Iresa Energy. The energy regulator was forced to step in to find a new energy supplier for the customers left stranded after Britain’s cheapest energy company buckled under the pressure of rising energy supply costs last week. The collapse marked the end of a lengthy, public battle between Britain’s most complained about energy company and the regulator over its poor customer service and billing problems.
Telegraph 31st July 2018 read more »
