U.K. Energy Bills to Balloon as Consumers Pay for Bulb Collapse

(Bloomberg) -- British consumers are set to pay for the collapse of Bulb Energy Ltd. as the cost of nationalizing the U.K.’s seventh-largest energy supplier gets tacked onto future bills.

Buying energy for all the clients of the 20 suppliers that have already failed was already set to add at least 2 billion pounds ($2.7 billion) to bills, with costs estimated at about 1,000 pounds per customer. Now that the U.K. government is temporarily taking on Bulb’s 1.7 million clients in the first forced nationalization since the 2008 banking crisis, that figure could double.

Rising energy bills come at a time when British consumers are facing higher costs for everything from food to fuel. Inflation rose 4.2% in October to highest in a decade. And that figure could get a further boost from April, when the U.K.’s energy regulator is expected to allow suppliers to raise prices again.

“We’re looking at a future of two or three price rises coming up because of the state of this market,” Keith Anderson, chief executive of Scottish Power Ltd said in an interview on BBC radio. “We’re going to have the cost of all these market failures and regulatory failures, they’ll come through and all the customers are going to have to pay more.” 

Europe is facing an energy crunch, with gas and power futures breaking records day after day. Demand is roaring back as economies recover from the global pandemic, while supply remains limited due to years of lower investments in fossil fuel generation. Europe’s vast network of renewable energy sources has not been able to plug the gap this year due to low wind speeds.

Higher prices are squeezing retail suppliers, with many having sold energy at fixed prices before the rally. An 18% jump in prices last Tuesday caused by delays in starting up the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline linking Russia to Germany was the final straw that derailed Bulb’s financing talks.

“Wholesale prices have skyrocketed and continue to be extremely volatile,” Bulb said on its website. “The news last week about Nord Stream 2 has sent gas prices back up again.”

As a result, the supplier will be put into special administration to ensure supplies for customers while a buyer can eventually be found for the company. This is the first time the measure -- also in place for critical services such as water and rail transport -- is used in the energy market.

Teneo Inc. is expected to be appointed to handle the administration of Bulb Energy Limited, the supplier’s trading arm, according to people familiar with the process. AlixPartners, an advisory firm that has been working with Bulb, is set to deal with the holding company, Simple Energy Ltd., the people said. Treasury will pick up the bill initially, before passing costs on to consumers. 

“The government would provide the funding necessary to ensure that the administration is managed in a way that protects customers’ supply,” the department of business, energy and industrial strategy said in a statement. “The government can recoup these costs at a later date.”

The special administrator process needs approval by the business secretary before papers are sent by the regulator to the court. For now, the process is being delayed by a dispute over a 50 million-pound loan owed to investment trust Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund Ltd, according to people familiar with the matter.

Rising wholesale prices could translate into a 40% increase in the price cap, a limit on how much suppliers currently can charge customers on default tariffs, according to consultancy Baringa Partners. The 20 failed suppliers before Bulb will add a further 75 pounds onto bills, said Martin Young, analyst at Investec Bank Plc.

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