2021-09-22 15:15:00
Soaring gas prices may not be temporary and more energy suppliers could go out of business in the coming months, the chief executive of Ofgem has warned.
Jonathan Brearley said “well above” hundreds of thousands of customers could be affected.
“Have a look at the change in the gas price – it really is something that we don’t think we’ve seen before at this pace,” he said.
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Food industry to be hit by ‘sharp rise’ in CO2 cost, Environment Secretary George Eustice says
“We do expect a large number of customers to be affected, we’ve already seen hundreds of thousands of customers affected, that may well go well above that.
“It’s very hard for me to put a figure on it.”
Speaking to MPs at a Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee hearing, he also said it was difficult to put a figure on how many firms would go out of business, adding: “We are going to want to have a ‘lessons learned’ after this.”
And he said: “We do expect more (suppliers) not to be able to face the circumstances we’re in.”
The gas spike caused two domestic energy suppliers to go out of business last week.
The government and Ofgem were warned as early as two years ago about the fragility of the energy sector, the chief executive of supplier trade body Energy UK has said.
Emma Pinchbeck said: “I took this job a year ago. When I was hired, the chairman of Energy UK said that your biggest challenge is going to be the vulnerability of the retail market.
“I know that for a year or more before that my team have been making the case to the regulator and the government that the sector is fragile.”
Dermot Nolan, the former chief executive of Ofgem, told Sky News he was “confident that the lights will stay on”.
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How to deal with spiking gas and electricrity bills amid the energy crisis.
It comes as tens of millions of pounds worth of taxpayers’ money could be used to subsidise a major US-owned fertiliser manufacturer to ensure the CO2 supply for the food sector continues during the energy crisis.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the government would provide “limited financial support” towards CF Fertilisers’ running costs to prevent food shortages in Britain’s supermarkets.
The agreement will remain for three weeks while the “CO2 market adapts” to a surge in global gas prices, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) said.
CO2 is used to stun animals in slaughterhouses and keep packaged products fresh.
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Source by [earlynews24.com]
