North West ‘green’ energy supplier goes bust

Barney Cook

Manchester energy supplier Eversmart Energy has gone bust.

It is the sixth UK energy firm to fail this year, and the 14th to exit the market since November 2016.

Supplying gas and electricity since August 2016, ‘green’ supplier Eversmart had expanded rapidly by providing highly-competitive energy, marketed purely online and by direct mail, and in July this year said it had nearly 40,000 customers UK-wide.

However, energy regulator Ofgem said the firm was supplying around 29,000 households and a “very small number” of business customers.

All its household customers will continue to have gas and electricity supplied to them while Ofgem finds a Supplier of Last Resort.

Ofgem has advised customers not to switch provider until a new supplier has been assigned.

Philippa Pickford, Ofgem’s director for future retail markets, said: “Eversmart Energy 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.”

Last year Eversmart was put on notice by Ofgem for failing to pay into a fund when it did not source enough renewable electricity under the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme.

Ofgem said it had seen a “significant increase” in complaints about Eversmart.

It said it had received four times as many complaints so far – 225 – this year compared with last year’s 55 complaints.

Chief Executive Matthew Vickers said: “Billing and switching problems have been the main drivers of unresolved complaints about the company.

“If you have complained to us about Eversmart and are awaiting a case investigation, decision or remedy we will contact you with an update soon.

“It’s unlikely that we will be able to take any further action on your complaint. In addition, as of today we cannot investigate any new complaints about Eversmart. We appreciate that this will be disappointing and frustrating for affected customers.

“As a not-for-profit ombudsman, we are funded by the case fees that energy companies pay to have complaints reviewed.

“In common with many other failed suppliers, Eversmart has ceased trading owing us a significant amount of money in unpaid case fees, increasing our exposure to bad debt.”

Energy expert at uSwitch, Emma Bush, said: “Unfortunately, Eversmart was often in the news for the wrong reasons. It launched a headline-grabbing tariff that required customers to pay for a whole year’s energy up-front.

“But this quickly turned controversial thanks to the claims it made about paying interest on its customers’ credit balances. It was subsequently delayed in making the required payments to help boost renewable energy generation, and doubts about its longevity began to set in.”

Among the energy firms to go bust recently are Solarplicity, Brilliant Energy, Extra Energy, Spark Energy, Future Energy, National Gas and Power, Iresa Energy, Gen4U, Usio Energy, One Select, Our Power and Economy Energy.

Earlier this year Eversmart agreed a corporate tree planting deal with London-based Eforests that would see the energy provider effectively planting a tree for every new customer.

Eversmart chief executive Barney Cook said: “We understand the environment is a primary concern for our customers, so, while 100% of our electricity is renewable, we are also always looking at ways to offset our total carbon footprint.”

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close