Dynamic updates
Journalists were expecting the recent turmoil in the energy market to last days. They were surprised when I said it was likely to take months for things to recover. Industry experts, like Ian Barker (see great post here), are predicting a lot more suppliers will go bust between now and the end of winter. And the next lot could easily be imminent…
There are ways to see in advance which energy suppliers are in trouble. Incredible data is available, if you know where to look for it.
3 out of 4 of the most recent energy suppliers to go bust (PfP Energy, MoneyPlus and Utility Point) had something in common: they went into Elexon’s credit default either the same day or a handful of days beforehand.
A supplier gets on this list via a sequence of events as follows:
- not having bought enough energy to match what their customers are using;
- being invoiced by Elexon to pay to cover the cost of this imbalance;
- failing to pay.
This again highlights the need for accurate demand data - to ensure suppliers have the best chance of predicting what their customers will need and buying ahead, on the wholesale market, at prices cheaper than these imbalance costs. And not being caught off guard by large fees that they haven’t budgeted for.
4 more suppliers went into this list within the last 24 hours. Another one who went on the list only 2 days ago for the second time has already ceased trading - Whoop Energy.
Here is the current status (we will update this daily):
Remember, our advice is to sit tight - even if your supplier is on this list. You are not at risk of being disconnected and any credit you have in your account is protected by the energy regulator, Ofgem. We will be keeping all of our customers updated as to when this advice changes.
