Four more small energy firms could go bust next week (c. 20/09/21)

Wilt

Nobody is forcing energy suppliers to enter into fixed price contracts with consumers - it is the energy suppliers themselves who draft the terms and conditions of the tariffs they offer and it shouldn't be a surprise that they're held to them.

The one area Ofgem and the govt should be looking at is the price cap as that is currently forcing suppliers to buy energy and then sell it for less than they can buy it for to those on standard variable tariffs - this strange notion that, even if they could (which they can't), Ofgem should wave a magic wand to release suppliers from obligations that they freely entered into with their customers who are on fixed price tariffs is nonsense.

Mee

FT article on Bulb.

(September 19, 2021 6:07 pm by Arash Massoudi , Nathalie Thomas and David Sheppard)

UK energy supplier Bulb in talks to secure new funding sources

https://t.co/pHSwSCRJLp?amp=1

/

https://amp.ft.com/content/11b1f0ec-5a6b-48d1-8d65-be26ead3a68d?__twitter_impression=true

QrizB

Mee said:

FT article on Bulb.

https://amp.ft.com/content/11b1f0ec-5a6b-48d1-8d65-be26ead3a68d?__twitter_impression=true

Well that's not good.

Lossmaking UK energy provider Bulb Energy is racing to secure its future and has asked its main bankers to help find new sources of funding as record wholesale energy prices create turmoil in the sector.

The start-up, which supplies electricity and gas to 1.7m UK customers, is being advised by longstanding bankers Lazard as it explores its options, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Founded in 2015, Bulb has rapidly become one of the largest UK suppliers since its launch by offering low-price deals and referral bonuses to customers. It is the sixth biggest supplier in Britain with a market share of just under 6 per cent as of March this year.

Bendo

It's all well and good saying suppliers should have hedged their energy, and I'm sure there have to an extent. One issue is even here, most people don't seem to have a clue what they use so suppliers are having to use estimates and probably err on the side of caution so they don't buy more than they use in a given period.

Verdigris

Bendo said:

It's all well and good saying suppliers should have hedged their energy, and I'm sure there have to an extent. One issue is even here, most people don't seem to have a clue what they use so suppliers are having to use estimates and probably err on the side of caution so they don't buy more than they use in a given period.

Yes, it's nearly always the people who never submit meter readings and haven't got a clue about their consumption who screech the loudest when prices rise suddenly.

You are tested on how a car works and needs to be maintained to get a driving licence. I think you should have to pass an exam, along similar lines, to be able to buy or rent a house.

The_Green_Hornet

If you see Sid tell him.

Wilt

Oh dear, bulb would be too big for any supplier to take on under the existing SoLR arrangements I bet - though if they are under pressure it wouldn't really surprise me. Their single tariff model, which is subject to the Ofgem price cap, isn't ideal at the moment.

uncletupelo

I was with GNE when they went bust and was passed to EDF. EDF 'protected' my tariff until this month but their offer wasn't great when that lapsed and I moved.

Is what EDF did by protecting my tariff, and therefore my costs, normal practice? If my current suppllier goes to the wall could whoever is given their accounts simply put me onto some ungodly tariff?

I'm paying £106/month for my dual fuel until June 2022 with OutFox The Market

Rocox

Wilt said:

Oh dear, bulb would be too big for any supplier to take on under the existing SoLR arrangements I bet - though if they are under pressure it wouldn't really surprise me. Their single tariff model, which is subject to the Ofgem price cap, isn't ideal at the moment.

No supplier is interested in taking on any new customers at the moment as each one is loss-making. According to the FT, the cost of buying enough wholesale gas and electricity in the spot market to supply an average household is estimated at about £1,600 a year, while the Ofgem-set price cap on energy bills is at present £1,277.

ewokuk

The management and owners of these companies need to be held accountable if they are too incompetent to run the company properly.  No doubt when these companies all go bust this lot will waltz off keeping their fat paychecks straight into some other senior position somewhere else to do the same thing again.

Premier League owners need to pass a load of checks to show they are competent, responsible, capable, and have the money to run the teams properly, what checks are done, prior to them being allowed to trade, on the owners and management of these energy companies that are supplying the public?

I don't know what makes people think there can be any real competition in a marketplace where they all buy their energy from the same wholesale places.  These companies do not provide anything, they do not make anything, they don't build anything, where do you think their margins can come from?  You have wholesale energy, and you have customer support.  That's it.  I don't see how you can have a competitive marketplace when there IS no market, they are effectively all just middlemen in a single marketplace.  The whole thing should be re-nationalised and should never have been privatised in the first place.