Supplier of Last Resort

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Ofgem outlines thinking on protecting credit balances and RO payments

    This article is an extract from our Energy Spectrum publication issued on Monday 25 April. If you are interested in receiving critical policy, regulatory, market and transactional developments across the energy sector, and would like a free full sample of Energy Spectrum, please request a copy here. You only need...

  • Home supply and services

    The risks of short-term interventions distorting long-term incentives in the energy market

    Christmas 2021 was not a time of cheer for the energy industry and its customers. There is acute stress on energy suppliers and consumers from current bills - let alone where they may move to in the coming year. And it seems the political and regulatory debate has moved on...

  • Business supply and services

    With great power comes great responsibility – what can be done for customers and suppliers in these challenging times?

    Given that the situation in the wholesale markets shows no signs of abating, both the government and Ofgem have a shared responsibility for helping to steward the energy sector through a period of profound challenges for suppliers as well as for their customers. Furthermore, the risk of structural damage to...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    2021’s most exciting ‘Charts of the week’

    Some of our team have looked back throughout 2021 and picked their most exciting 'Chart of the week'. Read about their choices and click through to read the full 'Chart of the week'. To do so, you need a free Cornwall Insight account which is easy to create here. Green...

  • Regulation and policy

    Just the bill please – who picks up the costs of market exits?

    This article is an extract from our Energy Spectrum Nutwood. find out more about a subscription to Energy Spectrum here. Between 9 August 2021 and 19 November 2021, 22 energy suppliers exited the market impacting more than 2mn mainly domestic customers. Supplier exits result in a number of costs being...

  • Home supply and services

    Will customers pay for suppliers reconsolidating?

    There’s been a lot of media about Scottish Power chief executive Keith Anderson’s comment about a “massacre” in the retail energy market. The spectre of a return to a handful of domestic energy suppliers has been raised. We are certainly going to a world of many fewer suppliers, in my...

  • Home supply and services

    37 suppliers remain in domestic energy market

    2021 has seen 14 domestic supply market exits to date, including the most recent three companies to use the Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process on Wednesday 29 September 2021: Igloo Energy (0.59% market share), Symbio Energy (0.04% market share) and ENSTROGA (0.09% market share). In September alone, nine suppliers...

  • Business supply and services

    Have we given up on competition in the retail market?

    “Q: How does 2pm on Wednesday sound? A: Assuming we still have a functioning energy market that'd be great”.  It’s not really what you expect to see in an email at 5pm on a Friday when trying to arrange a call. But then these are certainly not normal times. In this Energy Perspective, we will...

  • Business supply and services

    Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose: the RO late payment deadline

    Today (11 November 2020) Ofgem has confirmed that there will be mutualisation of the 2019-20 Renewables Obligation. On Monday, in our 'Energy Spectrum' Perspective, we explained to customer’s why this was important and likely and what it means for the energy industry. Find out more about a free trial to Energy...

  • Home supply and services

    Editor’s Pick | All Hallow’s Eve in the retail market

    This article was originally published in Energy Spectrum Issue 689 on 4 November 2019. Whether by accident or design last week’s last payment date for the 2018-19 Renewables Obligation (RO) followed nine days after Ofgem issued its proposals and impact assessment for ongoing monitoring of energy retailers. Halloween was always going to...

  • Home supply and services

    Not mushroom for competitive prices: Switching behaviours in the SEM

    The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) published its August 2019 Customer Switching Report for the Electricity and Gas Retail Markets on 24 September. In this edition of the blog, we compare monthly switching trends with CRU’s quarterly Electricity and Gas Retail Markets Report to explore whether fluctuations in...

  • Regulation and policy

    Life is a SoLR-coaster you just got to ride it

    On Tuesday 13 August Solarplicity became another in an ever-growing line of suppliers to fall ill to the tough market conditions and exit the market either voluntarily or through the Supplier of Last Resort process (SoLR). Exiting the market is becoming a more common occurrence, this being the third exit...

  • Home supply and services

    Editor’s Pick | The Dark Arts of removing price caps

    The regulator is facing a difficult challenge. Tasked by the legislation that introduced the mechanism, Ofgem now finds itself in the position of establishing whether competition in the market is “effective” enough to remove the cap on default energy tariffs. It has the opportunity to make the decision each year...

  • Business supply and services

    Flying too close to the sun – SoLR processes in water and energy blog

    Yesterday, Aquaflow Utilities entered administration and as a result exited the non-domestic water retail market in England & Wales. This is the first time an English water retailer has suffered an uncontrolled exit from the water market, but over the last 18 months 11 energy suppliers have exited the electricity...

  • Home supply and services

    New year, same trend: Economy Energy exits the market

    Economy Energy exiting the market on 8 January marked the first supplier failure of 2019 and the 12th domestic supplier exit over the last 12 months. The departure of Economy Energy follows continued speculation around the supplier’s financial health. Media coverage since December 2018 reported the supplier was working with...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Energy Perspective | Energy Spectrum Issue 628

    In this week’s Energy Perspective, we dissect a week that has seen three suppliers from very different backgrounds effectively stop trading. With five forced exits from the retail market since November 2016 there is little doubt that suppliers are facing more challenging conditions. However, we believe these events have also...

  • Home supply and services

    The ups and downs of energy supply: Brand and technology can make the difference in retail energy

    Three events in the last week have shown not only the contrasting fortunes in the energy supply market but also the roles of brand and technology in enabling success. The events are the credit default under electricity wholesale balancing rules of very small supplier Gen4U, the new energy supply deal...

  • Home supply and services

    SOLR power transfers Future Energy customers to Green Star Energy

    Green Star Energy has emerged as the winner of Ofgem’s supplier of last resort (SOLR) process for the 10,000 or so customers of failed supplier Future Energy. The process seems to have worked well with physical supplies continuing at the same tariff rates—be they fixed or variable—until 30 September. This...