MSE News: Spark Energy ceases trading - here's what you need to know

antrobus

Houbara wrote: »

The French have a nationalised energy industry..EDF ..

EDF is now a normal SA that is 85% owned by the French state. but you can buy shares in it if you want, 14 EUR each according to Google. They were about 80 EUR ten years ago

Here's an article from the Economist about EDF, where they are described as "financially crippled” and and that it's "future looks bleak". All those old nuclear plants apparently.
.
https://www.economist.com/business/2016/12/01/frances-nuclear-energy-champion-is-in-turmoil

So being 85% owned by the state isn't a guarantee of success. That should come as no surprise to anyone. Almost everything was 100% owned by the state in the Warsaw Pact countries, and that didn't turn out all that well in the end.

Houbara wrote: »

I expect they will do what they normally do with an EU directive they don`t like..ignore it ! The Italians are not big on following EU or any rules if they don`t agree with them neither
.

Really. Got any evidence?

antrobus

Anyway, the BBC is reporting that "Ovo Energy has confirmed it has entered into a conditional agreement to buy the company and take on its customers".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-46316603

joe134

AJS321 wrote: »

I was shocked when Extra went bust, but to lose two medium sized suppliers in as many days is really quite something.

I’ve been saying for about two years now, since GB went under, that the boom in small suppliers was unsustainable and that at some point the number of suppliers would start declining. What I didn’t expect is that the likes of Extra and Spark would go under as well.

My concern now is that this could spark (excuse the pun) some kind of public panic about small suppliers and people will start switching to the Big 6 in droves. You’re average member of the public will most likely think of anyone other than the Big 6 as being a small supplier, even though some of the medium sized ones are financially stable.

Also, the opening line of this thread is misleading in that OFGEM’s definition of a small supplier is one with fewer than 250,000 customers.

I think the answer is yes. I am staying put, with Scottish Power now.
I was ready to press the switch button, then two more go bust!
No doubt the mass migration to smaller companies is over.
There will be people returning to the big boys.
For peace of mind.
That is why they have done nothing about thier big losses, thet knew it was only a matter of time before this happened.
They will be laughing.

joe134

But I’ve got no idea if this is still party policy.

Neither do they ?
£150 billion is nowt to borrow,when we owe £1.5 trillion now!
They have done it before, borrow and spend.
No one is rushing out to tell Sid!
We were supposed to have cheap home grown gas from the North Sea, for ages, no importing it,that didn’t last long!
Billions of tons of coal underground, but cannot burn it, no industry left.
We flog everything off at the cheapest price, (gold Brown),
It’s all relative.
We never invest in our own future markets, just flog it off, (water!)
God help us if we ever have a severe winter!
And I won’t mention the B word.

sTatesofThis

I hope this is the right place, I'm a new poster to MSE. I applied for my warm homes discount via Spark on the 15th of October, it wasn't awarded can anyone tell me what, if anything I can do about this?

Browntoa

Not as a domestic customer , you could wait for ovo to take over and reapply.

Or instigate a switch now to a supplier who agrees to give you the discount

TrustyOven

I'm in credit by approx 6 months worth of electricity. Should I simply cancel the direct debit and wait for the new supplier to contact regarding a new direct debit?

Tottington

Woolco wrote: »

Can we stop talikng about brexit, labour, france etc. This is about an electric company. THANK YOU.

Welcome to the internet :beer:

Former Spark Representative

Hi sTatesofThis

I just wanted to acknowledge your query. Unfortunately it's not something I can answer for you at the moment, but I wanted to reassure you that once OFGEM have appointed a new supplier for our customers, that you should be able to get an update on this.

Please bear with us for now until there's another update. We have updated our website with a statement about our current position, and I'd expect that we'll do that again once OFGEM have appointed another supplier.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Kind regards

Jenny
Customer Relations Team

Former Spark Representative

Hi tomg1234

Sorry to hear you didn't have a good experience with Spark.

OFGEM have advised Spark customers not to initiate a transfer to another supplier, until after they've appointed a supplier to take on our customer base.

Any Spark customers wanting to know more about this should take a look at our website.

Kind regards

Jenny
Customer Relations Team