British energy supplier Bulb suffered heavy losses.
London, United Kingdom:
British energy supplier Bulb collapsed on Monday, prompting extraordinary intervention from the government to protect the 1.7 million households it serves.
Britain’s seventh-biggest supplier has joined the so-called “special administration”, becoming the largest of more than 20 UK energy suppliers to collapse since early September.
Companies have been hit by rising wholesale prices for gas and electricity, which they cannot pass on to consumers due to UK government price caps.
“We have decided to support Bulb’s special administration, which means it will continue to operate without disruption to service or availability to members,” the company said in a statement. .
Bulb’s parent company, Simple Energy, went live while its international businesses in France, Spain and the United States continued to operate.
The government insists that customers will be protected, including anyone with credit on their payment balance with Bulb.
Britain’s energy regulator has responded to previous collapses by luring customers into larger operators.
But Bulb is more than three times bigger than the next biggest company to fail, requiring a tailored approach, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman told reporters.
“The special regulatory regime that Bulb will adopt, is a long-established, well-established mechanism to protect energy consumers and ensure an uninterrupted supply of energy when suppliers experience problems,” he said. try”.
