Yesterday, Monday 21st December, Jackgreen
appointed Atle Crowe-Maxwell and John Lord of PKF as
voluntary administrators of Jackgreen Ltd as its
subsidiaries.
Jackgreen ran into trouble during last month's heatwave on the
eastern seaboard when they found themselves unhedged and were
forced to buy electricity on the spot market at extremely high
prices.
Jackgreen amassed a debt of $809k to New South Wales Government
owned retailer Integral Energy, but has been unable to secure
sufficient working capital to secure this debt and the ongoing
viability of the business.
Jackgreen's 70,000 residential customers will be allocated to
retailers competing in the New South Wales, South Australian,
Queensland and Victorian energy markets.
Make It Cheaper
says: "It's a real shame to see a relatively new
competitor in the energy space go under like this. It shows
that without proper government and regulatory support, new market
entrants can easily hit the wall in the face of aggressively
volatile wholesale prices. Hopefully the government and
energy regulator will look at ways new market entrants can be
better supported in the various state based energy markets where
there are still not enough competing suppliers."
Existing Jackgreen customers can be confident that with the
'supplier of last resort' mechanism the government runs, they will
not be left without energy supplies. They should keep an eye
on the Jackgreen website for further announcements,
but as Jackgreen offered both competitive prices and green energy
supplies, these customers should look to shop around in the New
Year for a new energy deal.