Scottish Power has been appointed by Ofgem to take on the 130,000 domestic customers of failed power supplier Tonik Energy.
Tonik became the third and largest supplier so far this year to exit the market earlier this week, just days after the energy regulator revealed it to owe more than £8.7 million in renewables obligation (RO) and Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) payments.
Utility Week previously revealed that Scottish Power was believed to be in contention for Tonik’s customers. They will switch over to the supplier tomorrow (10 October).
Earlier this year it was announced that Japanese firm Mitsui was investing a further £11 million in Tonik, on top of the £10.3 million invested by the Tokyo-based firm in February 2019.
The retailer said it planned to use the investment to fund renewable energy technology and electric vehicle (EV) chargers. Tonik also had ambitions of acquiring 500,000 customers by 2024 and was aiming to be a near £1 billion revenue business by the following year.
Tonik had however been suffering from a poor reputation for complaints recently, coming 40th out of 40 in the latest Citizens Advice star ratings table for customer service and having an ‘average’ Trustpilot rating.
Industry sources believe change in billing system at the start of this year also contributed to the level of complaints it received.
Tonik joins fellow challengers Gnergy and Effortless Energy, both of which ceased trading earlier this year.
Meanwhile Robin Hood Energy’s customers were acquired by Centrica recently and fellow council-backed supplier Bristol Energy was acquired by Clydebank-based Together Energy last month.