Pure Planet and Colorado Energy fall victim to gas price surge as CNG looks for bids
The UK’s energy crisis has claimed two more challenger companies as Pure Planet and Colorado Energy ceased trading tonight.
250,000 Brits are now ‘orphaned’ – without a provider – while the energy regulator designates stranded customers.
The historic surge in wholesale gas costs this year has driven up bills for providers and households to the point that 14 UK energy firms have collapsed in 2021.
BP-backed Pure Planet has 235,000 households on its books but has run into difficulty after the energy giant refused additional funding. Colorado Energy had just 15,000 customers.
Following the announcement, Ofgem tonight said that their customers would be protected as they look to allocated new suppliers.
Neil Lawrence, director of retail at Ofgem, said, “Ofgem’s number one priority is to protect customers. We know this is a worrying time for many people and news of a supplier going out of business can be unsettling.”
Sky News previously revealed on Wednesday that up to four struggling firms were in talks with the regulator about entering its Supplier of Last Resort (SOLR) mechanism.
In another blow, the Glencore-backed commercial energy supplier CNG Group is understood to be seeking offers for its commercial supply arm.
Advisers to the FTSE-100 company are seeking bids for the arm of its operations which supplies more than 40,000 smaller businesses by the end of the week, Sky News reported.
It is reportedly preparing the wholesale business for an insolvency process.