PANDA POWER HAS confirmed that it plans to leave Ireland’s energy market, becoming the fourth supplier to do so this year.

The energy supplier cited “insurmountable” price increases in the international wholesale energy market.

Reports in recent days indicated that Panda Power was readying to pull out of Ireland, which the company confirmed this morning.

A Panda Power spokesperson said that the “international energy market is facing unprecedented challenges, with wholesale energy costs having risen to unsustainable levels”.

“Over recent months Panda Power has examined all possibilities of absorbing additional cost internally and minimising customer price increases,” the spokesperson said.

Despite our best efforts this is no longer possible, and we cannot justify imposing on customers the substantial price increases now necessary.

“We have therefore reluctantly made the decision to leave the Irish electricity and gas market in an appropriate manner, with the least possible impact on our customers.”

The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) confirmed that it received formal notification from Panda Power of its intention to leave Ireland on 30 September. 

The company has advised customers that there will be no disruption to their energy supply.

Customers will be able to choose a new supplier up to and including 28 September.

Any customers that do not select a supplier will be automatically transferred to Electric Ireland for electricity and Bord Gáis Energy for gas, the CRU-designated suppliers of last resort, from 30 September. 

The automatic transfer would be for 90 days at those suppliers’ standard tariff rates for electricity or gas. If a customer is transferred, they should contact the new supplier to discuss other tariffs available, the CRU advised.

The CRU recommended that customers submit a meter reading to ESB Networks or Gas Networks Ireland “to ensure that an accurate read can be transferred to any new supplier and customers are not subjected to an estimated meter read to avoid any possible larger catchup bills”.

Panda Power said it will work with affected employees to redeploy them in the wider company group and that there would be no compulsory redundancies.

Its departure from Ireland will affect around 60,000 customers – around 2% and 1% of all electricity and gas customers respectively.

Previous suppliers Glowpower, Bright Energy, and Iberdrola exited the Irish market earlier this year.

Darragh Cassidy, Head of Communications at Bonkers, a price comparison service, said the announcement from Panda was not “wholly surprising given the carnage on energy markets right now”.

“Panda had no electricity generation assets so it was highly exposed to the rapidly rising price of gas and electricity on wholesale markets,” Cassidy said.

He said it is “likely more suppliers will fall over the coming months”.

“Regardless of the energy crisis, the Irish market probably has several more suppliers than it can profitably sustain over the long-term.”