Seven small UK energy suppliers must pay renewables fees or risk losing licence

LONDON -

Seven small British energy suppliers owe a total of 34 million pounds ($43.74 million) in renewables fees and could face losing their supply licences if they cannot pay, energy regulator Ofgem reports.

Under Britain’s energy market rules, suppliers of energy must meet so-called renewables obligations and feed-in tariffs which are imposed on them by the government to help fund renewable power generation.

Several small energy companies have gone bust over the past two years as they struggled to pay the renewables fees and as their profits were affected by a price cap on the most commonly used tariffs and fluctuating wholesale prices.

Ofgem has called on the companies to make necessary payments by Oct. 31.

“If they do not pay Ofgem could start the process of revoking their licences to supply energy,” it said in a statement.

The seven suppliers are: Co-Operative Energy Limited; Flow Energy Limited; MA Energy Limited; Nabuh Energy Limited; Robin Hood Energy Limited; Symbio Energy Limited and Tonik Energy Limited. ($1 = 0.7773 pounds)