Bristol Energy receives further £2m from council owner
Published 6 August 2018
Standard content for Members only
To continue reading this article, please login to your Utility Week account, Start 14 day trial or Become a member.
If your organisation already has a corporate membership and you haven’t activated it simply follow the register link below. Check here.
Bristol Energy has received a fresh £2 million injection of funds from its local authority parent.
A Companies House filing last week (2 August) showed that Bristol City Council invested the money on 30 July.
The £2 million increases the authority’s total investment in the energy company, which it set up in 2016 to offer cheaper energy for local residents and reinvest any profits in the local community, to £26.2 million.
Peter Haigh, managing director of Bristol Energy, said: “This was a planned investment from the council, to help us give the fairest possible deal we can to our customers, and support us as we grow.
“All investment will be paid back with interest, and we’re on track to start paying back to the council as planned by 2021.”
Bristol Energy announced last year that it had pushed back by two years the date by which it expected to break even.
The company suffered a setback earlier this year when it lost the contract to supply energy to Bristol council, which was awarded to British Gas instead.
At the time the authority said that it had to follow strict public procurement rules and so could not offer its own company special treatment when awarding the contract.
Bristol was the second council to establish a fully-licensed municipal energy supplier, following the launch of Nottingham’s Robin Hood Energy.
Several other authorities have subsequently set up their own municipal energy suppliers after entering into white label arrangements with Robin Hood, including Liverpool council’s Leccy and Angelic Energy in the London borough of Islington.
Please login or Register to leave a comment.