Two More Energy Suppliers Collapse

PfP Energy and MoneyPlus Energy have announced they are shuttering, affecting around 94,000 customers.

Preston-based PfP Energy, which previously traded as Places for People Energy, supplied gas and electricity to around 80,000 households and 5,000 businesses. PfP’s website announced the firm’s closure “with regret” and said its domestic customers will continue to be able to access the account portal to view their bills, provide meter readings and make payments.

Small supplier MoneyPlus Energy, which served around 9,000 households, will also close up shop. "We appreciate that this could be unsettling,” the supplier said in a statement posted on its website.

Ofgem’s safety net will ensure that gas and electricity suppliers continue as normal for domestic and business customers of both failed suppliers. Additionally, the credit balances of domestic customers will be protected.

Over the next few days, the regulator’s Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process will select a new supplier for customers left in the lurch. Customers should wait until that supplier contacts them before trying to switch away.

Neil Lawrence, Director of Retail at Ofgem, said: “Although the news that a supplier going out of business can be unsettling, PFP Energy and MoneyPlus Energy customers do not need to worry.

“Ofgem will choose a new supplier for you and while we are doing this our advice is to wait until we appoint a new supplier and do not switch in the meantime. 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,” he added.

PfP and MoneyPlus are the fourth and fifth energy suppliers to fold this year, following the collapse of Hub Energy in August and Green Network Energy and Simplicity Energy in January. As wholesale gas and electricity prices surge, more financially precarious firms could follow.

Late summer and early autumn is often a crucial pinch point for struggling energy suppliers, as payments into Ofgem’s Renewables Obligation (RO) fund come due. In previous years, suppliers that have struggled to meet deadlines for the payments, which subsidise renewable energy generation, have fallen into administration.

Lauren Smith

Lauren Smith has worked as a journalist and copywriter for most of the last decade, covering technology, energy, and consumer rights, in the US and UK.

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