Bulb placed into special administration - What now?

Bulb Energy, which started in 2015 and was one of the first providers to offer renewable energy at affordable rates, has gone into special administration due to the spike in wholesale prices.

This means that for now the insolvent company is continuing to run as normal whilst administrators are brought in and the company sold at the appropriate time - if it can be. Customers will be transferred to another provider.

Is it better to go with a bigger supplier or a smaller one at the moment? Should Bulb customers shop around or wait and see what happens?

Have you got any advice for forum members affected by this and the collapse of other energy firms?

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

Octopus not just for the great over night rate of 5p per kwh which is good for charging the car or battery storage etc. but all those £50 referrals I have done have saved me a fortune.
Excellent customer service, fair prices so happy to stick with them

 

[BenCos18]

we're with glowpower atm
Though the contract is up in the next month or two iirc so we have to take a look at the others again also

 

[BazS]

Which energy firm are you with? Perhaps it's worth doing a poll for this to see what firm electricians and plumbers are with.

I was with Green but when they went bust was transferred to Shell.

 

[ericlime]

I'm a hobbyist. Hence no company

 

[Msitekkie]

Another one with Octopus. Always seem to be rated highly with Which?
I am planning on getting a battery system to add to my solar panels, so Octopus "Outgoing Agile" will be a no-brainer. Octopus seem to be way ahead on innovation, clearly some very switched on people running the business - I believe they do hedge their energy costs too, so better placed than some of the others that have gone out of business.
BTW this story explains why Bulb customers are NOT being transferred:
Energy firm Bulb to go into administration

 

[cloverman]

I'm with EDF so will be stuck there now for a spell until the Madness runs it's course

 

[Baddegg]

I’ll ask my mrs…..words words words

 

[Tim Court]

I was with igloo before I moved house. Now with SSE

 

[Lister1987]

With Bulb here, been with them for some time, started out great, then we moved house and due to smart meter issues had a whopping £600 bill where tht smart meter hadn't communicated in months, finally started working and wallop one big --- bill.

Staying put for now, have no EV/PV/ESS so not idea whT supplier to change to, probsy Octopus

 

[brianmoooore]

Was moved to Octopus when a supplier went bust a few years ago. From there I moved two accounts to Iresa, and have just been compulsorily moved to EON. Should probably have stayed with Octopus.
Have another account with Scottish Power, who I have been in dispute with for several years. Can't leave because of their alleged outstanding balance. Have a folder containing a sheath of 54 threating letters of one kind or another, ranging from 'payment overdue', through 'escalated collections' to ten letters from their 'in house' Grovesnor sollcitors, plus two visits from debt collectors in person. Keeps people in employment, I suppose.

 

[Moley]

I'm with OVO. I only found out a couple of weeks ago. Been with SWALEC (part of SSE) for years but apparently that's now part of OVO.

 

[jimshall]

Was moved from Symbio which went bust a few week ago to EON. Tarriff almost doubled to 24.1p but has been reduced to 20.4p recently. It was 12.6p with Symbio! Also the daily standing charge has almost trebled to 32p. I wonder how much it actually costs to produce and supply renewable energy at the moment....

 

[DMenace1000]

Which energy firm are you with? Perhaps it's worth doing a poll for this to see what firm electricians and plumbers are with.

Octopus Energy. (1st yr-fixed pmth).Pretty Good so far

 

[Dartlec]

Another Bulb user here - mainly because I got the £50 credit when switching way back.

Naturally my old 'smart' meter didn't properly work for ages, but they do seem to have finally sorted it.

Will wait and see what happens, not much point moving now as I doubt anyone is keen to take on new customers until they see how bad the Winter gets...

Waiting to see if a grant will pay for a new boiler (upgrade from E7) so I can stop using oil filled radiators and wearing a woolly hat in the kitchen!

 

[oracle]

Which energy firm are you with? Perhaps it's worth doing a poll for this to see what firm electricians and plumbers are with.

Utilita but would switch for better deal when the dust settles

 

[R-fur]

Been with Octopus for a few years now, no issues, fingers crossed.

 

[Resu]

I've been with bulb for years, on their vari-fair tariff which has served me pretty well before now. Referrals have been good too. Currently on 20.82p/kWh & 27.38p standing charge. Gonna stick just now and see what happens.

 

[rapparee]

Power NI

Used to be NIE before they separated

 

[volts-amps1]

I'm with British Gas, but may have to shop round in the new year.

 

[Jymbob]

Was moved from Symbio which went bust a few week ago to EON. Tarriff almost doubled to 24.1p but has been reduced to 20.4p recently. It was 12.6p with Symbio! Also the daily standing charge has almost trebled to 32p. I wonder how much it actually costs to produce and supply renewable energy at the moment....

The problem is that there's a weird thing in the UK and EU where (crudely) the unit price is based on the most expensive production route at any given time, so even if there's enough energy for 90% of the UK from wind and sunshine it gets charged at the same price as the gas-generated stuff which is ludicrously high right now.

It's supposed to keep things competitive, but it's woefully out of date, hindering development of clean fuel solutions and is basically the cause of this whole pricing surge.