Energy turmoil More firms poised to go bust

More British energy firms could go bust because of the situation in Ukraine, it is feared.

Ministers were preparing for further gas price rises as Vladimir Putin’s forces appeared likely to invade the country.

Last year, 25 firms collapsed after record price rises. Two more, Whoop Energy and Xcel Power, which between them supplied 500 customers, failed on Friday.

A Whitehall source said “more supplier failures” were expected.

The price spike has been fuelled by Ukraine-Russia tensions, low levels of storage in Europe, the early retirement of nuclear power plants and insufficient wind. A price cap stops suppliers raising their variable tariffs to market levels, so they have effectively had to sell power at a loss.