Which energy suppliers have gone bust?

Last updated: 18 February 2021

Latest Update – where do we stand?

The carnage in the UK retail energy market continues apace.

We are only just out of January and already 410,000 households are having to find an alternative energy supplier. To put that into context that is already 90% more than the whole of 2020.  Not a pretty picture.

Here is the running total.

• 22 energy suppliers have gone bust
• 1.8 million customers switched to other energy suppliers involuntarily
• Many other suppliers have exited in more orderly ways

Apart from that everything is just dandy.

Overview

This article makes for pretty dismal reading. Energy supplier failures are, no doubt, an inconvenience to consumers. Those customers affected have to edure getting their energy supply shifted, while the unpaid bills of the failed supplier get loaded onto everyone else’s energy bills.

But don’t let that put you off switching and prevent you getting a £300 annual saving. There are many well operated, highly rated and viable energy suppliers in the market. Indeed, some of the cheapest deals currently being offered are from the Big 5. What’s important is to check out the new supplier first. And avoid getting sucked into cut price deals from smaller suppliers that ask for several monthly payments in advance.

If you are reading this page becasue your energy supplier has just gone bust, this article will tell you what to do if your energy supplier goes bust. Remember, you do not have to accept any new energy deal you are offered by the new supplier who takes over your supply. What you absolutely should do is a comparison to see how that deal stacks up. If necessary, leg it out of there. Pop your postcode into the box below to check alternative cheap energy deals.

About this page

On this page we provide a running update on failures of energy suppliers supplying domestic energy consumers in the UK. This is done in the form of a summary table together with brief comments about each failure.

Some energy suppliers manage to exit the energy business without going bust. These exits, usually a trade sale of the business or the customer base, are summarised in a separate table.

At the end of each year we do a round-up commentary. We post these round-ups on seperate pages. Links to those pages are provided at the bottom of the page.

Green Network Energy goes bust

Green Network Energy ceased trading on 27 Jan 2021.

The now bust energy supplier had approximately 360,000 domestic customer accounts. These have now been shifted over to EDF Energy.

EDF Energy has taken Green Network Energy’s 109 tariffs and moved customers onto a much simplified list of just 6 tariffs. These tariffs are all variable with prices guaranteed fixed until 30 Sep 2021. The new tariffs are fairly competitive and clearly designed to stop Green Network Energy customers leaving on masse. Energy bills, based on average consumption, range from £796 to £1,042. The sting in the tail is that, come 1 Oct 2021, you can expect to get shunted back onto a default tariff.  If that happens, some customers could see their bills hiked by 43%. We’ll have to wait and see.

For the tariff geeks out there, the new EDF tariffs are called Welcome GNE Variable (v1 through v5) and GNE Variable Prepay.

What took Green Network Energy down?

Joe Malinowski, founder of energyscanner.com noted. “This one surprised us a little. Green Network Energy seemed to be a well organised, well run business with lots of industry experience albeit not in the UK market. It was generating revenue of approximately £300m a year. However, the financials paint a different picture. The company was horribly unprofitable and bleeding cash. It’s cost structure appears to be very bloated. At this point we don’t know whether the company got caught un-hedged during recent increases in wholesale energy prices, or just ran out of financial run-way. But it does show that even £10’s of millions of funding is no guarantee of survival.”

According to the latest published to financials statements.

In the year ended 31 December 2018;

Revenue:             £142m

Loss:                   £20m

Balance sheet as at 31 December 2018;

Net Assets           (£29m) – ie negative £29m

This figure includes £7.6m of capitalised intangibles including £6m of capitalised commission. WTAF?

Excluding intangibles, net assets were negative to the tune of £36.5m. OUCH!

So, it’s bye, bye to Green Network Energy

Simplicity Energy goes bust

Simplicity Energy ceased trading on 27 Jan 2021.

The now bust energy supplier had approximately 50,000 domestic customer accounts. These accounts have been moved over to British Gas Evolve, British Gas’ swanky new energy supply brand.

British Gas have placed all Simplicity Energy customers onto a single tariff. The tariff, called Simplicity Promise, is fixed until 31 March 2022. But, and it is a big BUT, it is pricey. With a price tag of £1,041 for customers with average consumption range, it means that virtually all Simplicity Energy customers will see their prices hiked. Most will see increases of over £100 and many will see prices hiked by £220.

Why did Simplicity Energy cease trading?

So, what caused Simplicity Energy to pull the plug? Did they run out of names for their vegetable-themed portfolio of tariffs? Probably not.

Joe Malinowski, founder of energyscanner.com noted. “To be honest, this one did not come as a great surprise. Simplicity Energy started out in May 2018 as a regional supplier centred around London, the South East and the Midlands. It was a full year before they expanded coverage to England and Wales. We’ve never seen the rationale for a regional strategy in energy supply. Indeed, there hasn’t yet been a regional supplier that hasn’t gone bust.”

“They scored surprisingly well on Trustpilot. However, despite that, from our experience they were operationally challenged. And apart from being able to lose money by being cheap in a market where all other players also lose money by being cheap, how else were they going to make it? Well, the simple answer is they couldn’t and didn’t.”

According to the latest published to financials statements.

In the year ended 31 March 2019;

Revenue:            Not disclosed

Loss:                   Not disclosed (energyscanner.com estimate approx. £1.4m).

Balance sheet as at 31 31 March 2019

Net Assets           (£1.4m) – i.e. negative £1.4m

This included £260k of capitalised intangibles.

Excluding intangibles, net assets were negative £1.7m

With ex-Simplicity Energy customers facing price increases of up to £220 with British Gas Evolve, the only question that needs answering is this. Which tariff are you going to switch to?  You can find out easily below.

Yorkshire Energy goes bust

Yorkshire Energy ceased trading on 2 Dec 2020.  The company that actually went into administration is called Daisy Energy Supply Limited – don’t ask. Yorkshire Energy was a trading name. It was the fourth domestic energy supplier to go bust in 2020.

The now bust energy supplier had approximately 74,000 domestic customer accounts. These were moved over to ScottishPower. Scottish Power did not publicly announce which tariffs these customers landed on.

What caused Yorkshire Energy to crash and burn?

Joe Malinowski, founder of energyscanner.com noted.

“Yorkshire Energy were making decent progress and seemed to know what they were doing – by energy supplier standards anyway which, to be fair, aren’t particularly demanding. They even managed to get decent customer service reviews. At the point of failing, their revenue run rate would have been around £60m per annum.”

“Their problem, like so many other failed energy suppliers, seems to have been their business model. Losing money by selling energy below cost in a market where everyone else is losing money by selling energy on the cheap, was never going to end well. So it’s adios to another energy company.”

According to the latest published financials statements of Yorkshire Energy (Daisy Energy Supply Limited). In the year ended 31 March 2019;

Revenue:             Not published

Loss:                     Not published – energyscanner estimate £2.6m

Balance sheet as at 31 March 2019

Net Assets           (£3m) – ie negative £3m

Energy suppliers that have gone bust

The table below lists UK energy suppliers which have gone bust since November 2016. Although there were occasional failures prior to this date, they were few and far between.

Ofgem’s laid back approach to energy supplier market entry has created havoc for almost 2 million energy consumers, and driven up bills as the carcasses of failed energy suppliers mounts up.

The real irony is that some of the suppliers appointed by Ofgem to rescue “failed suppliers” are now at risk of failing themselves. Indeed, some customers will now have been with 2 or more failed suppliers.

We update this page regularly with new data as more energy companies collapse. Please check back regularly (if you’re into that sort of thing).

In the meantime, if your old energy supplier appears on this list here is what you need to do.

To avoid getting stuffed with a poor deal with the new energy supplier, please make sure you compare what you have been offered.

We source the data in the table below from multiple public domain sources. This includes announcements from industry regulator Ofgem, cross-checked with energy supplier websites and Companies House filings.

The Supplier column shows the name of the failed energy supplier.

The new supplier column shows the energy supplier appointed by Ofgem to take over the failed supplier’s customer base. This is undertaken under the SOLR (Supplier of Last Resort) provisions.

Date	Supplier	No. of customers affected (approx.)	New supplier	Customers affected - domestic (cumulative)
27 Jan 2021	Green Network Energy (Green Network Energy Ltd)	360,000 domestic	EDF Energy	1,799,300
27 Jan 2021	Simplicity Energy (Simplicity Energy Limited)	50,000 domestic	British Gas Evolve	1,439,300
02 Dec 2020	Yorkshire Energy (Daisy Energy Supply Limited)	74,000 domestic	ScottishPower	1,389,300
06 Oct 2020	Tonik Energy (Tonik Energy Ltd)	130,000 domestic	ScottishPower	1,315,300
03 Sep 2020	Go Effortless Energy (Effortless Energy Ltd )	2,500 domestic	Octopus Energy	1,185,300
18 Mar 2020	GnERGY (Gnergy Ltd)	9,000 domestic	Bulb	1,182,800
18 Dec 2019	Breeze Energy (Breeze Energy Supply Limited)	18,000 domestic	British Gas	1,173,800
23 Oct 2019	Toto Energy (TOTO Energy Limited)	134,000 domestic	EDF Energy	1,155,800
15 Oct 2019	Uttily Energy (Rutherford Energy Supply Limited)	280 business	Total Gas and Power
6 Sep 2019	Eversmart Energy (Eversmart Energy Ltd)	29,000 domesic	Utilita	1,021,800
13 Aug 2019	Solarplicity (Solarplicity Supply Limited)	7,500 domestic 500 business (approx.)	SSE	992,800
9 Aug 2019	Cardiff Energy Supply (Cardiff Energy Supply Limited)	800 domestic	SSE	985,300
11 Mar 2019	Brilliant Energy (Brilliant Energy Supply Limited)	17,000 domestic	SSE	984,500
25 Jan 2019	Our Power (Our Power Energy Supply Limited)	31,000 domestic	Utilita	967,500
8 Jan 2019	Economy Energy (Economy Energy Trading Limited)	235,000 domestic	OVO Energy	936,500
10 Dec 2018	One Select (One Select Energy Supply Limited)	36,000 domestic	Together Energy	701,500
10 Dec 2018	Spark Energy (Spark Energy Supply Limited)	290,000 domestic	OVO Energy	665,500
21 Nov 2018	Extra Energy (Extra Energy Supply Limited)	108,000 domestic 21,000 business	ScottishPower	375,500
15 Oct 2018	Usio Energy (Usio Energy Supply Limited)	7, 000 domestic	First Utility	267,500
Sep 2018	Gen4U (Gen4u Ltd)	500 domestic	Octopus Energy	260,500
27 Jul 2018	Iresa Iresa Limited	90,000 domestic (approx.)	Octopus Energy	260,000
Jul 2018	National Gas and Power Limited	80 business	Hudson Energy
25 Jan 2018	Future Energy Future Energy Utilities Limited	10,000 domestic	Green Star Energy	170,000
26 Nov 2016	GB Energy Supply GB Energy Supply Ltd	160,000 domestic	Co-operative Energy	160,000

Energy suppliers withdrawing from the market

For the record, here is a list of energy suppliers who have exited the market in a more orderly way (without crashing and burning).

Date	Supplier	No. of customers affected (approx.)	Exit type	New supplier
15 Jan 2020	SSE	3.5 million	Trade sale	OVO
29 Nov 2019	Green Star Energy	200,000	Trade sale	Shell Energy
18 Sep 2019	npower	3.8 million	Trade sale	E.ON
29 Aug 2019	Co-operative Energy	300,000	Trade sale / Strategic partnership	Octopus Energy
5 Feb 2019	Sainsbury's Energy	Not disclosed	Withdrawal from market	British Gas No change to supplier as customers already supplied by British Gas
31 Aug 2018	Affect Energy	22,000 domestic	Trade sale	Octopus Energy
25 Jan 2018	Flow Energy	230,000 domestic	Trade sale (at distressed prices)	Co-operative Energy
21 Dec 2017	Brighter World Energy	Unknown	Orderly wind down	Robin Hood Energy

Company Announcements

And here is the sorry story in pictures….in reverse chronological order.

Breeze Energy goes bust

Breeze Energy is the latest domestic energy supplier to go bust. It is the 16th domestic energy supplier to fail and the 8th to fail in 2019.

Toto Energy

If you were a Toto Energy customer and want to check the EDF Energy deal you’ve been offered (Welcome Apr20) call us to get a comparison over the phone…

0800 083 2819

 

Eversmart Energy

Eversmart Energy seem to have been so keen to exit the market they haven’t even bothered to keep their website live. Anyone who was with Eversmart Energy and needs to contact them well, I’m afraid you are all out of luck.

If you were an Eversmart Energy customer and don’t like the Utilita deal you’ve been offered call us to get a comparison over the phone…

0800 083 2819

…. or pop your postcode into the box below to check online.

Solarplicity

Cardiff Energy Supply

Brilliant Energy

 

Our Power

Millions of pounds of public funds were wasted on this doomed venture.

 

Economy Energy

One Select

 

Spark Energy

Extra Energy

Usio Energy

Gen4U

 

Iresa

Future Energy

GB Energy Supply

GB Energy Supply spectacularly imploded in November 2016. It was the first of the failures of the group of domestic energy suppliers that entered the UK energy market under Ofgem rules which allowed energy suppliers to get a license with little if any capital, and with no relevant industry experience.

 

That’s all for now. More to follow we’re sure.

Remember, you do not have to accept any new energy deal you are offered by the new supplier who takes over your supply. What you absolutely should do is a comparison to see how that deal stacks up. If necessary, leg it out of there. Pop your postcode into the box below to check online.

Got a story you’d like to share?

If your energy supplier has gone bust and you have an interesting story you’d like to share then please get in touch. You can either leave a comment or get in touch via our Contact Form. Adding comments is subject to our Terms and Acceptable Use Policy.

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