Pure Planet faces becoming latest casualty of industry crisis

richpluk

BP, the FTSE-100 oil giant, which owns a 24% stake in Pure Planet, has decided not to continue supplying energy to the company amid the current industry crisis, Sky News understands.

A residential renewable energy supplier backed by BP is nearing collapse, joining the growing list of industry players which have found themselves unable to weather surging wholesale prices.

A residential renewable energy supplier backed by BP is nearing collapse, joining the growing list of industry players which have found themselves unable to weather surging wholesale prices.

Sky News has learnt that Pure Planet, which is 24%-owned by the FTSE-100 energy giant, has commenced discussions with Ofgem, the industry regulator, about entering the Supplier of Last Resort (SOLR) process set up to transfer the customers of failing companies.

Industry sources said on Sunday that an announcement about Pure Planet's fate could be made as soon as this week, although they cautioned that a final decision had yet to be taken.

The company has 250,000 customers, according to a company spokesman.

A source close to BP said it had decided not to continue funding Pure Planet, which is understood to owe it an unspecified sum of money, amid the current crisis.

It was unclear this weekend whether the small supplier was in any talks about alternative means of continuing to fund itself that could preserve its future.

If Pure Planet does collapse, it would take the number of casualties in the market to almost a dozen since the beginning of August.

Thrugelmir

Any company which hasn't sufficiently hedged it's exposure is going to fail. Wafer thin margins resulting in attractive selling prices for new customers is never going to be a long term viable business strategy. 

SPOWER

Thanks for posting.  Am not familiar with this company and I check every month who is cheapest, so they clearly were not in the SSEB/ScottishPower region.  Fingers crossed Neon Reef keep going 'till I get my compo.

molerat

SPOWER said:

Thanks for posting.  Am not familiar with this company and I check every month who is cheapest, so they clearly were not in the SSEB/ScottishPower region.  Fingers crossed Neon Reef keep going 'till I get my compo.

They supply N Scotland but you have to scroll a long way down the list to find them, 4th dearest. Their cheapest only tariff is around £1250 for 3200

WillPS

There was a time when they were consistently the cheapest on offer for me when I lived in Sheffield, but I seem to recall some need for an app and at the time they didn't support the phone I used. That would have been at least 5 or 6 years ago now tho.

Thought they would survive with their ties to BP, but it appears that things were perhaps not rosy there for some time if they are owed cash.

wittynamegoeshere

Doo doo doo

Another one bites the dust

Ultrasonic

SPOWER said:

Thanks for posting.  Am not familiar with this company and I check every month who is cheapest, so they clearly were not in the SSEB/ScottishPower region.  Fingers crossed Neon Reef keep going 'till I get my compo.

Who are cheapest varies from one customer to another based on usage. Just because they weren't a good option for you didn't mean that they weren't for others. I'm not in your region but they were for me in May which is why I'm a current customer of PP. It's not sounding too promising though.

Here's a link to the actual article that was copied and pasted in the OP for anyone wondering:

https://news.sky.com/story/bp-backed-energy-supplier-pure-planet-faces-becoming-latest-casualty-of-industry-crisis-12430539

Grabs39

They had been claiming they had hedged until spring.  Disappointing as my fixed rate with them until next September isn't too bad so I expect there may be a hike in the near future.

Swipe

Grabs39 said:

They had been claiming they had hedged until spring.  

I suspect only a small proportion was hedged which gives them the right to mention hedging  on their blog.

MWT

Swipe said:

Grabs39 said:

They had been claiming they had hedged until spring.  

I suspect only a small proportion was hedged which gives them the right to mention hedging  on their blog.

If I remember the wording, they said they had hedged their fixed tariff customers, which left them exposed to any others, and I guess to be brutally accurate, it didn't say that they had actually paid BP for the hedging...

spot1034

All companies, regardless of their strategy for existing contracts, must now be vulnerable when those contracts come to an end and they are then forced to supply energy at a loss to their customers who go on to the default variable tariff.