SEPA Green Energy declared bankrupt, ACM revokes supply licenses
Dutch energy company SEPA Green Energy has been declared bankrupt, and has therefore asked the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) to revoke its licenses for the supply of electricity and natural gas. Since SEPA Green Energy is no longer able to supply energy to approximately 20,000 customers (consumers and small business customers) in a secure manner, ACM will revoke SEPA’s licenses. SEPA’s customers will continue to receive energy, and will automatically be informed by their new energy supplier.
SEPA Green Energy ran into financial problems because it had outsourced the procurement of energy to another company, Energie I&V, which was declared bankrupt on 3 December 2021.
SEPA Green Energy’s receiver will have until 22 December 2021 to find another energy supplier that is prepared to take over SEPA’s customers (consumers and small business customers). If this fails, these customers will be redistributed among all other energy suppliers before 5 January 2022.
During the transitional period, which lasts until 5 January 2022 at the latest, customers will be unable to switch suppliers themselves. Customers will automatically be informed by their new energy supplier about their energy contracts. They will subsequently be able to decide whether or not to stay with that supplier or to switch suppliers anyway. Their new supplier can impose a notice period of no more than 30 days.
The revocation of the licenses will thus not have any consequences for the supply of natural gas and electricity, but it can have financial consequences, for example for customers that SEPA Green Energy still owes money. Since SEPA Green Energy has been declared bankrupt, customers that have paid a high monthly payment in advance may not receive all of this money (or even nothing at all).
Consequences for large-scale users
In addition to the roughly 20,000 consumers and small business customers (customers with electricity connections of 3x80A or more, or a natural-gas connection with a capacity larger than 40m3/hr) to which SEPA Green Energy supplies energy, it also supplies energy to large-scale users. Supplying energy to large-scale users does not fall under ACM’s licensing system. The above-mentioned procedure therefore does not apply to large-scale users. The transmission system operators (GTS for natural gas and TenneT for electricity) ensure through a different procedure that supply to these large-scale users will not be interrupted.