Elexon has expelled three more suppliers from the Balancing and Settlement Code (BSC).
Avro Energy, AMPower UK and Delta Gas And Power are all in Default under Section H3.1.1(c)(iii) of the BSC, Elexon announced yesterday (21 September). This is due to their failure to sufficiently reduce their Credit Cover Percentage over a period of two working days.
Additionally, none of the three have provided the administrator with sufficient evidence that they have taken sufficient remedial actions to resolve the Default.
The notice now sent to each supplier means they are unable to register any new Metering Systems and further register any Balancing Mechanism Units, in effect preventing them from taking on new customers.
For Avro Energy, this blow comes just a week after Ofgem issued it with a provisional order, compelling it to provide financial information to the regulator.
In 2020, AMPower UK was one of five suppliers issued with final orders after it failed to become Data Communications Company users, and in 2019, Delta Gas And Power was one of four suppliers ordered by Ofgem to pay outstanding Renewables Obligations fees.
The removal from the BSC follows a number of other suppliers getting booted out this month, including Symbio Energy and Whoop Energy on 17 September, both of which were issued with provisional orders for failure to pay into the Feed-In Tariff (FIT) scheme yesterday (21 September). Symbio was also issued a provisional order for £450,000 of missed FiT payments in August.
Elexon also expelled Utility Point, People’s Energy, PfP Energy and MoneyPlus Energy from the BSC, all of which have since shuttered and their customers have been taken on by Suppliers of Last Resort.
The wave of removals comes amidst record high power prices, driven by a global shortage of gas which has driven up the price of gas by 250% since the beginning of the year along with low winds and a number of outages in Britain, including the IFA interconnector following a major fire this month.
These tight market conditions are squeezing suppliers, with even larger ones feeling the pinch. Bulb – Britain’s sixth biggest supplier – began searching for additional funding to help see it through this tight period, for example.
