Five suppliers of last resort appointed for six failed firms

Ofgem has appointed five energy suppliers to take on the more than 70,000 customers of six recently failed energy retailers.

The news follows the announcement by Yu Group earlier on Monday (8 November) that it had taken over the supply of the 600 domestic and 2,000 non-domestic customers of Ampower.

In a release published in the afternoon, Ofgem also confirmed it had found new suppliers for the customers of MA Energy, Omni Energy, Bluegreen Energy, Zebra Power, CNG Energy and CNG Electricity.

Pozitive Energy will take on the 41,000 non-domestic customers of CNG Energy and CNG Electricity, while British Gas will absorb Zebra’s 14,800 domestic customers and Bluegreen’s 5,900 domestic customers as well as its small number of non-domestic accounts.

Prepayment meter (PPM) specialist Utilita will take over Omni Energy’s 6,000 domestic PPM customers and SmartestEnergy Business will now supply MA Energy’s 300 business customers.

So far this year an unprecedented 22 energy retailers have exited the market via the supplier of last resort (SoLR) process, leaving around 2.4 million customers for other suppliers to pick up.

Speaking in response to his company’s appointment as SoLR for the customers of Zebra Power and Bluegreen Energy, Centrica chief executive Chris O’Shea said: “The actions we have taken over the past couple of years mean Centrica is in a robust financial position, and as a responsible energy supplier built on a sustainable model. We are well hedged for the coming winter.

“We have now taken on the customers of six failed suppliers through Ofgem’s Supplier of Last Resort process this year and we’ll continue to do what we can to help stabilise and support the sector and work as part of wider industry efforts to drive regulatory reforms which are urgently required.”