On 22nd November, Bulb Energy entered administration. Bulb is the most recent and far largest UK based casualty of the international energy crisis.
The collapse of Bulb will no doubt cause great concern for those affected by rising energy prices and does not bode well for the short-term future of green energy.
What is Bulb?
Bulb is the UK’s seventh-largest energy supplier. It was founded in 2015 and has amassed 2.2 million customers. Bulb will be placed into ‘special administration’, meaning that the government will run the company, in collaboration with regulator Ofgem. Usually, if a smaller supplier collapses, another energy firm will be appointed to take on its customers. However, Bulb is too large for this to be viable. The largest energy company to go into administration prior to Bulb was Avro, which had 580,000 customers.
Why have they collapsed?
Bulb issued a statement where they indicated that the skyrocketing prices of gas have caused the company to be unable to continue trading.
Gas prices have recently hit £4 per therm, up from 50p per therm in November 2020, with most of this increase taking place in the last three months. For clarity, the price cap is currently set at around 70p per therm.
How will staff and customers be impacted?
At the moment, it is not clear how the collapse will affect Bulb’s staff and customers. Bulb has more than one thousand members of staff who are likely unsure of their futures with the company. Furthermore, Bulb has claimed that their customers should not see an interruption to service or supply for the time being at least. However, it is uncertain whether customers will be kept on tariffs with the same sustainability credentials.
Bulb has confirmed that their international businesses in France, Spain and Texas will continue trading, as they are separate entities from Bulb UK.
As always, if you would like any further information regarding the above, please feel free to contact our offices by email info@williamsoncroft.co.uk.