GnERGY Ceases Trading after Failing to pay its Renewables Obligations

GnERGY Ltd, a gas and electricity supplier that had around 9,000 domestic customers and a small number of non-domestic customers will now cease to trade.

However, under the Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) scheme all of its energy supply customers will be passed onto another company.

While that process is under way its customers will continue to be supplied and any outstanding credit balances will be protected under Ofgem’s safety net.

“GnERGY customers do not need to worry, as under our safety net we’ll make sure your energy supplies are secure and domestic customers’ credit balances are protected. Ofgem will now choose a new supplier for you and whilst we’re doing this our advice is to ‘sit tight’ and don’t switch. You can rely on your energy supply as normal. We will update you when we have chosen a new supplier, who will then get in touch about your new tariff,” said Philippa Pickford, Ofgem’s director for future retail markets.

GnERGY was one of four energy supply companies that had failed to pay its Renewable Obligation fees by the 31st August 2019 deadline.

The four, that also included Robin Hood Energy, Toto Energy and Delta Gas and Power were all given until 31st October to make the payments in full or risk losing their licence.

So far Delta Gas and Power have paid the £91,937 plus interest it owed, and Robin Hood Energy has paid it’s £9,435,925 plus interest in full. Toto Energy ceased trading after it failed to pay and owed £4.5 million in RO payments.

Ofgem issued GnERGY Ltd with a final order on 29 October 2019, requiring the supplier to make an outstanding payment of £673,876.62 plus interest by 31 October 2019 to comply with the Renewables Obligation schemes.

It failed to pay up.

Update 21.3.20 - Ofgem has appointed Bulb to take on supplying Gnergy Limited’s 9,000 domestic customers and small number of non-domestic customers.

The Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme aims to encourage energy suppliers in the UK to generate electricity from renewable sources.

The scheme means that licensed energy suppliers are obliged to source an increasing amount of their electricity from these sources.

In order to show that these obligations have been met, suppliers are required to submit Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) to Ofgem.

If suppliers don’t have the necessary ROCs, they instead need to make a payment into a buy-out fund.

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GnEnergy is the latest casualty in the fiearcly competitive energy supply market and is just the latest to fail. With failures being pretty common, Ofgem introduced the Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) powers to ensure that customers receive a smooth transition to a new supplier.

The powers were first introduced in 2003 and have been implemented numerous times as the number of suppliers in the market has increased.

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