Bulb Energy's customers were transferred to Octopus Energy in October 2022, according to a table of supplier failures maintained by Confused.com1. The move followed the Supplier of Last Resort process, under which the regulator Ofgem appoints a new supplier to take on customers when their existing supplier stops trading1.
Bulb is the largest name on that list, which runs from January 2021 to July 2022 and covers more than 30 suppliers1. The same table records UK Energy Incubator Hub moving to Octopus Energy in July 2022, Together Energy to British Gas in January 2022, Zog Energy to EDF in December 2021 and Orbit Energy to Scottish Power in November 20211. Several suppliers moved to Shell in October 2021, including Pure Planet, Igloo Energy, Colorado Energy and Daligas1.
Under the process, a household's gas and electricity supply is not cut off when a supplier fails1. Customers are advised to take a meter reading and wait for Ofgem to transfer them to a new supplier1. A fixed deal held with the failed supplier is unlikely to be carried across; the household is instead placed on the new supplier's standard variable tariff under what is called a deemed contract1. Credit balances are protected, and the new supplier should repay anything owed, minus the cost of energy used during the switching process1. Where an account is in debit, the outcome depends on what the new supplier agreed with the old supplier's administrators: the debt may be owed to the new supplier, or to the old supplier or its administrator1.
The automatic switching process should take only a few days, though it can take longer where Ofgem asks the courts to appoint an administrator to run the existing supplier1. Customers can switch energy supplier again once the new supplier has been in contact, and Ofgem says no exit fee applies in that case1. Unresolved complaints are not automatically taken on by the new supplier, though a household can raise the matter with it and, if needed, take it to the Energy Ombudsman after attempting to resolve it with the supplier first1.
Why it matters for households
A supplier failure is a test of how much control a household has over its own energy arrangements. The supply itself continues, but the contract does not: the tariff a household chose is replaced by one it did not choose, set by the supplier Ofgem appointed1. That shift matters for budgeting, because a standard variable tariff moves with the price cap rather than being fixed for a term.
Credit balances sit at the centre of the risk. Money paid in advance to a failed supplier is protected and should be returned by the new one, but a household in debit faces an outcome that depends on a commercial agreement it was not party to1. The practical effect is that the household's position on the day of the transfer, in credit or in debit, shapes what follows.
Smart metering adds a further variable. A SMETS2 meter should connect to the new supplier and continue working, while a SMETS1 meter may stop communicating and require manual readings until it is upgraded1. For a home relying on its own readings and records, that gap is a reminder of how much of the relationship with a supplier rests on systems the household does not control.
What happens next
No further steps are set out in the Confused.com table. It records the Bulb transfer as complete in October 2022 and lists no subsequent action for those customers1.
Sources1 cited
- Energy suppliers going bust: what to do - Confused.com, confused.com