Companies

Pure Planet and Colorado Energy have become the latest suppliers to shutter in the UK market. Ofgem has stepped in to protect their 250,000 domestic gas and electricity customers, and are calling for customers to wait to be appointed a new supplier. It follows a raft of collapses recently, exacerbated by the high energy prices seen in the UK due to a global shortage of gas along with a number of outages in September. With wholesale gas prices up 250% between January and September, there were nine small suppliers that shuttered last month. ENSTROGA, Igloo Energy, Symbio Energy, Avro Energy, Green Supplier Limited, People’s Energy, Utility Point, PfP Energy and MoneyPlus Energy all collapsed, and their customers were placed with Suppliers of Last Resort (SoLR), chosen by the regulator.

Current 14th Oct 2021 read more »

Small energy supplier Daligas has become the third company to go bust this week, as the surge in wholesale gas prices shows no signs of easing. London-based Daligas has around 9,000 domestic and non-domestic customers, Ofgem said. The regulator added that a new supplier will be chosen to take on stranded customers.

Telegraph 14th Oct 2021 read more »

Energy suppliers that failed this year lost almost £400 million of their customers’ money and left behind billions of pounds of costs for all households to pay, Centrica’s boss said yesterday. Chris O’Shea, chief executive of the British Gas owner, criticised collapsed suppliers for “gambling with their customers’ money” and said that if they had been banks “it would, quite rightly, be a national scandal”. This year, 15 energy companies supplying 2.4 million households failed, 13 in the past two months alone as wholesale gas and electricity prices soared. Many of the costs arising from their collapses, including reimbursing customers for their lost credit balances, are recouped from all households on their energy bills. Every billion pounds of costs left behind equates to about £35 for every household in Britain.

Times 15th Oct 2021 read more »

Two more UK energy suppliers go under due to record wholesale gas prices. Collapse of BP-backed Pure Planet and specialist provider Colorado Energy brings total of failures to 12 since August.

FT 13th Oct 2021 read more »

Ofgem will reportedly announce soon that four more energy suppliers will cease to trade. Sky News reported that the energy market regulator is already in talks with four energy firms to activate its Supplier of Last Resort mechanism.

Energy Live News 13th Oct 2021 read more »

Fears are growing over a fresh wave of energy supplier collapses after a key gas supplier said it was exiting the market. Glencore-backed CNG, which supplies wholesale gas to utilities customers, said it had been “forced into an impossible position” after many of its clients ceased trading. There are still around 18 CNG customers that will now need to seek alternative sources of gas. The move sparks fears over further turmoil in the energy market. Two more suppliers – Colorado Energy and BP-backed Pure Planet – went bust last night, taking the total number of collapses to 11 since the start of September.

Telegraph 14th Oct 2021 read more »

Ed Miliband insisted there is a “role for public ownership” in the UK’s energy market as he appeared to distance himself from Sir Keir Starmer’s decision not to support nationalising the Big Six energy firms. In what seemed to be a division between the former Labour leader and the incumbent, Mr Miliband said some element of nationalisation may be needed for power providers. “It’s a deeply inadequate market and of course we need to look at all of these issues in relation to the market, and that’s what we’re going to do,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday. Asked whether the energy system should be renationalised, he said: “There are many elements to the energy system – there is generation, there is distribution, there is transmission and supply, and I see a role for public ownership in relation to the energy system.”

Telegraph 13th Oct 2021 read more »

Four more energy suppliers are in line to collapse amid soaring wholesale gas and electricity prices, leaving thousands more households facing higher bills. A string of companies are on the brink of failure as crisis grips the energy market, according to Sky News, with talks underway with Ofgem, the industry regulator. Failures could be announced as soon as this morning. It would bring to 13 the number of suppliers that have failed since the start of September, with more likely to follow over the winter as turmoil grips the market.

Telegraph 13th Oct 2021 read more »

With COP 26 on the horizon and the Eco situation reaching boiling point with energy crisis, climate disaster and non stop demonstrations, Dale Vince – the boss of the UK’s leading wind power company Ecotricity and chair of the world’s only vegan football club – Forest Green Rovers – is in the media all the time providing many of the answers. Back in 2019 he was less well known but equally visionary as he explains his vision to John Robb in this interview which resulted in them writing Dale’s ‘Manifesto’ book.

Louder than War 12th Oct 2021 read more »

Losses at Royal Dutch Shell’s household energy supply venture more than quadrupled to £138 million last year as the oil giant struggled against cut-price competitors. Operating losses at Shell Energy Retail ballooned to £83.6 million, from £26.7 million in 2019, as the company blamed “adverse market conditions” in the UK with “unsustainable, below-cost pricing across the market”. It also cited “investment in customer growth, higher customer acquisition costs and a rise in bad debt as a result of the coronavirus pandemic”. Shell supplied energy to 940,000 UK households by the end of last year, up from 745,000 a year earlier after it integrated 200,000 customers acquired from Green Star Energy. The supplier also booked a £52.4 million impairment charge as it wrote off investments in Germany, sending it to a total pre-tax loss of £137.8 million, from a £31.5 million loss in 2019.

Times 7th Oct 2021 read more »

It is impossible not to admire the vim with which Ovo Energy has attacked the stranglehold of the so-called Big Six energy suppliers. In the space of just a decade, the company has come from nowhere to become the UK’s second-largest provider. It has helped to loosen the grip that a coterie of firms had exerted over households for years, subjecting customers to lousy service and rip-off bills in the process. New entrants have introduced more choice and greater efficiency. Yet in the scramble for a solution to the energy crisis, ministers and the regulator shouldn’t rush to see dealmaking as the easy answer. Reports suggest both Ovo and Octopus, another newcomer that has made great inroads, are circling Bulb, the biggest supplier to run into trouble yet, as wholesale gas prices go through the roof. The temptation to see a piece of corporate finance alchemy as a quick fix is understandable. The system is buckling as smaller suppliers fall like dominoes – 10 have gone bust since August – exposing the fragility that has come from opening up the market, as well as Ofgem’s shortcomings in policing it. A sudden price spike shouldn’t be enough to spark chaos. With more adequate hedging and better capital buffers enforced, fewer would surely have unravelled. But the established names won’t be able to step in and take on customers forever in a loss-making environment. At some point the economics become unattractive, or worse, unsustainable.

Telegraph 5th Oct 2021 read more »

Adding a raft of new customers must be a novel experience for the energy supplier Centrica, although it’s taken an energy crisis to beef up the billing list. The British Gas owner, which last month announced it would take on more than 400,000 consumers from defunct energy companies, has been losing core UK energy customers for the past decade due to fiercer competition from smaller rivals and customer service problems. That’s not good when you are pivoting away from production and increasingly towards being a consumer-facing business. It explains why the shares are still in the doldrums, despite progress on mending the balance sheet. In fact, with an enterprise value of just 3.8 times forecast earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) for next year, sentiment remains near a record low.

Times 6th Oct 2021 read more »

OVO Energy is hailing 2020 as a landmark year for the company, having completed the largest industry consolidation deal to date. This was due to its acquisition of SSE Energy Services, which bumped its customer numbers significantly, helping it to move from a challenger brand to the third largest energy supplier. As such, it had 4,500,000 customers in 2020 compared to 1,377,000 in 2019.

Current 4th Oct 2021 read more »

Ovo prepares to bid for Bulb.

FT 4th Oct 2021 read more »

Ovo, the household energy supplier, is eyeing further deals less than two years after completing its takeover of rival SSE’s retail unit. The country’s third largest supplier is poised to consolidate its position as soaring gas and wholesale power prices destabilise rivals. The Telegraph understands Ovo is looking at deal opportunities including Bulb, the country’s sixth largest provider, which is reportedly seeking new funding. Ovo could face rivalry in that process from Octopus, another challenger brand which has also been linked to Bulb. Wholesale gas prices have risen about six-fold since last year and wholesale power prices about five-fold amid a global crunch in gas supplies. Nine small suppliers went bust during September, affecting about 1.7m consumers who are moved onto new providers under the regulator’s safety net.

Telegraph 3rd Oct 2021 read more »

Energy company Bulb has come under fire from its customers who say it is using them like a bank. It is forcing them to pay higher bills even when many of them are hundreds of pounds in credit to the supplier. The bumper increases – by as much as 80% – could be an indicator of what is in store for customers of other suppliers grappling with record gas market prices following a week in which three more firms went to the wall. Igloo Energy, Symbio Energy and Enstroga all went bust last week. Bulb, which has 1.7 million customers, has recently been at the centre of takeover speculation and is hunting for fresh investment to fund the company. It says on its website that it offers “fair prices that stay fair” – but customers have flooded Twitter to complain about the monthly price increases and to ask whether this is happening because the firm is having money “problems”.

Observer 2nd Oct 2021 read more »

Greg Jackson can’t suppress a chuckle. The energy crisis has sent a number of suppliers to the wall already and the founder of Octopus Energy is watching in amusement as his rivals, large and small, artfully adapt their lobbying efforts accordingly. Soaring wholesale gas prices have sent costs rocketing for energy firms, triggering calls from smaller suppliers for the price cap to be lifted. Meanwhile, Chris O’Shea, the chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica, recently performed an extraordinary volte-face when he dropped his company’s long-standing opposition to the price cap now it is wiping out some of the competition. “I think we’re just about the only people who haven’t changed their views, aren’t we?” says Jackson. “The people who used to oppose the price cap now seem to support it, and the ones who supported it now oppose it. The reality is that without the price cap, households would be facing huge rises in energy costs.” Despite the turmoil that has already claimed ten smaller suppliers, Octopus Energy’s tentacles are spreading. It has taken on nearly 600,000 customers from Avro Energy, one of the firms that collapsed, is reportedly eyeing a swoop on rival Bulb, and has just received a near-£500 million cash injection from the investment fund of environmentalist, and former US vice-president, Al Gore. And that’s all in the past few days.

Times 3rd Oct 2021 read more »