The company will supply electricity until 31 August, while its customers will have to choose a new supplier by 28 September. The company will continue operating until it sells its assets, pays compensations to customers and settles with creditors and partners. The company’s shareholders will not receive any Perlas Energija assets or payment once the company is closed.
Perlas Energija CEO Vilius Juraitis says the decision to cease operations was affected by the totality of factors.
First, when customers were switched to variable-price plans, the company lost the trust of consumers and authorities making it difficult to attract new customers in the near future.
Second, customers are actively terminating agreements. As of now, approximately 20,000 customers have terminated agreements and the rate at which this was happening suggested that more would do so, which would have made it impossible for the company to supply electricity to remaining customers.
Third, creditors who financed the company’s activities now refuse to do so.
Therefore, the company decided to cease operations now, without waiting for its financial situation to deteriorate.
The CEO said the company is now working actively on preparing a compensation mechanism for its customers and is in talks with the Ministry of Energy and the National Energy Regulatory Council (VERT). The company is going to compensate the difference between its fixed-price plans for electricity and the price offered by new suppliers. This will apply to customers who had concluded fixed-price plan agreements and if they choose a different supplier by 28 August or if they return to the public electricity supply.
According to the CEO, if funds remain after the sale of assets, settling with creditors and partners, and after payment of compensations, these funds will be donated in support to Ukraine.
In addition, the company is in talks with other independent electricity suppliers to ease the transfer of its customers.
As reported, 180,000 households had chosen Perlas Energija as their independent electricity supplier.
Whereas when the second stage of liberalisation of the retail electricity supply market ended in July 2022, the company was second in terms of agreements concluded with customers. Approximately 15% of households consuming 1,000-5,000 of kWh of electricity per year had chosen Perlas Energija as their independent electricity supplier.