Orbit Energy Review - Plans, Pricing, FAQ (2022 Guide)

Orbit Energy was a UK energy supplier that officially operated for around 3 years, from 2018 up to 2021. On 01 December 2021, the company went bust due to several reasons regarding the UK energy crisis, after that date, all of the clients of this company were and are still being transferred to Scottish Power.

Figure 1: Orbit Energy Logo – Source: Orbit Energy

If you are interested in knowing more about Orbit Energy, this article is for you. Here we review everything about Orbit Energy, when did it start operating, who is the current owner of the company, what were the last available tariffs, the market share of the company, how good was it, and much more.

Who Owns Orbit Energy?

Orbit Energy is not currently being held by the same owner who created the company in the first place. Originally, this company was created and first owned by Utilisoft Limited at the time of its incorporation at the Registrar of Companies for England and Whales in 2015, but it did not officially operate until 2018.

Almost 5 years after its creation, in 2020, Orbit Energy was acquired by Genie Energy Ltd. As part of the actions proposed to expand the portfolio of the new matrix company. The whole purchase was priced at around $1.7 million.

Thank you for reading this post 🙌 - don't forget to take advantage of our New Free Tools: Electricity Cost Calculator and Energy Bill Calculator 👇

Energy Bill Calculator

Our Energy Bill Calculator is designed to help you estimate your electricity costs in the…

Electricity Cost Calculator

Do you want to know how much your electrical appliances are costing you every month?…

While the company is still owned by Genie Energy Ltd., since it went bust in 2021, Orbit Energy appointed Mark Firmin, Joanne Hewitt-Schembri, and Paul Berkovi who work in name of Alvarez & Marshal Holdings, LLC. As the appointed joint administrators, they manage all business and property affairs of the company.

Orbit Energy Market Share

Orbit Energy was considered a relatively small energy supplier among the operating suppliers in the UK. Since it handled a relatively small client portfolio, Orbit Energy never released its official market share numbers, but this does not mean that we cannot estimate this number parting from the number of customers it handled.

According to the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), the UK energy regulator, Orbit Energy supplied energy to 65,000 residential customers. Since there are around 28 million electricity customers in the UK, this means that Orbit Energy barely held 0.23% of the UK energy market.

Figure 2: UK Energy Market Share – Source: Ofgem

Considering that all of the UK small energy suppliers hold 6.3% of the UK energy retail market or around 1.76 million of those 28 million customers, Orbit Energy only held 3.65% of those customers being serviced by small energy suppliers. While this is a small number, Orbit Energy still handled many more customers than some of the other small energy suppliers in the UK.

What Tariffs & Plans Does Orbit Energy Offer?

Since Orbit Energy went bust on 01 December 2021, the company selected new administrators and transferred all of its customers to Scottish Power on orders from Ofgem. Orbit Energy is not offering any tariffs or plans, nor will it do in the close future.

Is Orbit Energy Expensive?

While Orbit Energy is not providing tariffs or plans anymore, you might still wonder if this company was cheap or expensive. To help you solve this doubt and compare the company with your current electricity provider, we will analyze some of the latest tariffs available for the company and even compare them with Scottish Power, the new energy supplier for former Orbit Energy customers.

Orbit Energy featured a tariff for prepaid customer, a fixed tariff called the 12 MONTH FIX, and the variable tariff called 5% OFF 4 LIFE which was the most popular one. The variable was reviewed twice a year, and it got his name because price was always set 5% under the price cap set by Ofgem. The company also provided Economy 7 variations of the 5% OFF 4 LIFE and 12 MONTH FIX tariffs.

*Type of plan*	*Unit Rate (p/KWh)*
*Unrestricted*	*E7 Day*	*E7 Night*
5% OFF 4 LIFE	17.191	–	–
12 MONTH FIX	17.287	–	–
Pre-payment plan	18.330	–	–
Economy 7 – 5%OFF4LIFE	–	17.790	12.882
Economy 7 – 12 MONTH FIX	–	17.936	12.986

Table 1: Orbit Energy Tariffs – Source: Orbit Energy

These tariffs are consistently cheap considering that the variable tariffs offered by Scottish Power are set at 20.076 – 26.834p varying the price on the location of the customer.

All of these prices prove that Orbit Energy was a relatively cheap UK energy supplier. While this might have been convenient for its customers, these prices in consideration of the UK energy crisis and perhaps even other administrative issues, made the company go bust in 2021.

Orbit Energy Pros & Cons

While Orbit Energy was operating, the company delivered excellent prices, supported several types of meters, and had many other benefits. Like most companies, it also had several cons attached to it. In this section, we review them all.

Pros

Supported customers with Economy 7 and Pre-paid meters.
Prices for the variable and fixed tariffs were relatively cheap.
Variable tariffs were set 5% under the price cap set by Ofgem, promising relatively cheap costs.
Customers stated that the switching process onto this company was easy and hassle-free.
It provided 100% renewable energy to its customers.

Cons

According to customers, it was difficult to contact customer support.
The company took too long to assist with technical problems like fault meters, and several other similar issues.
The bills were not always accurate.
Orbit Energy did not always protect its customers while switching tariffs or companies.

Customer Service

Since Orbit Energy is no longer providing tariffs & plans nor delivering electricity to its former customers, the company is no longer providing customer service. If you need to contact someone over your Orbit Energy electricity & gas account or have a problem related to it, Orbit Energy recommends contacting directly Scottish Power, your new gas & electricity provider.

Scottish Power Official Website (Orbit Energy customer’s section).
Telephone: 0800 559 3314
Contact email: [email protected]

Orbit Energy also advises its former customers to call 150 in case of a power cut or the National Gas Emergency hotline (0800-111 999) in case of a gas leak.

Customer Reviews

While Orbit Energy aimed to deliver cheap clean energy for a fair cost, it did not always provide the best service to its customers. Many customers reviewing the company claimed to have inaccurate bills, slow answers for technical difficulties, and many complained in general regarding customer service.

One major problem affecting customers was how the company failed to protect them when switching tariffs or suppliers. Exactly 723 customers were affected by this problem, causing a total detriment of £5,539.25 to all of them. Ofgem took charge of that problem and had the company pay £9.79 in reparations to each affected customer.

Considering these problems, while Orbit Energy had a relatively above-average score, this score could still be considered as poorly for a company looking to provide good customer service.

Customers rating Orbit Energy in TrustIndex rated the company with 4.1/5 stars. 73% of the customers rated the company with 5 stars, however, a little more than 22% of the customers rated it with 1 star.

On TrustPilot, the company was rated with only 3.2/5 stars with many more reviews than in TrustIndex. Only 54% of the customers on this site rated the company as excellent, while still, 22% of them rated it as bad (the equivalent of 1 star). 14% of the remaining customers rated it as great, while 12% of them rated it as poor or average.

How Green Is Orbit Energy?

One of the great points in favor of Orbit Energy is the origin of the energy delivered to its customers. While at first, this company provided energy coming from mixed non-renewable sources, since 01 October 2019 the company finally delivered 100% renewable energy to all of its customers, according to its Fuel Mix.

The green energy delivered by Orbit Energy was being generated from different sources, including hydro, wind, solar, and several others. The origin of this green energy was being certified by the Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGOs) handled by Ofgem.

Orbit Energy Digital Presence

Orbit Energy was a UK energy supplier with a very small and limited digital presence. The company seemed to have only been present on Facebook and LinkedIn, however, it did not update its profile nor deliver any news regarding its services in several months since Q1 2021. The only available method to contact the company if you wanted information or to solve queries, was via email.

Since Orbit Energy went bust in Q4 2021, the company is not handling anymore its Facebook or LinkedIn account or queries via email. Any current question you might have or any information regarding the gas & electricity service will only be answered by Scottish Power via telephone (0800-5593314) or email.

How To Switch To Orbit Energy?

If you were looking into Orbit Energy because you were aware of the advantageous and cheap tariffs provided by the company, we regret to inform you that Orbit Energy went bust as of Q4 2021. There is no switching to his company anymore since it will not provide electricity or gas in the future.

Every former customer of Orbit Energy is currently being transferred to Scottish Power. If you are interested in this company, you can check out their official website to know more about the supplier.

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

Is Orbit Energy a good supplier?

Many of its customers considered Orbit Energy as a good energy supplies. More than 50% of its customers rated the company as an excellent energy supplier with 5/5 stars, however, the company also had several poor reviews from many customers. Around 22% of its customers considered the company to be a bad energy supplier, while the rest of them only considered being a below or above average supplier.

One point in favor for Orbit was the price for its variable and fixed tariffs. While this company was operating, it provided excellent tariffs for gas & electricity.

However, just like there are good points in favor, there are also bad ones. Orbit Energy had several problems like monthly billing accuracy problems, poor customer service, and the company also did not always bill customers correctly when switching tariffs or companies during 2013 – 2020.

Is Orbit Energy going bust?

As of December 2021, Orbit Energy went bust and selected leading administrators belonging to Alvarez & Marshal Europe LLP to manage the business and property of the company. Any customer of Orbit Energy has been either completely transferred to Scottish Power or is currently in the process of being transferred. You can find more information about the switch at the official website of Scottish Power.

To make the switching between suppliers as smooth and hassle-free as possible, Orbit Energy recommends former customers wait until the switching is complete before switching to any other company. After the transfer is complete, previous customers of Orbit Energy are free of switching electricity providers from Scottish Power onto any other supplier of their choosing.

Is Orbit Energy still in business?

Orbit Energy has ceased trading as a UK energy supplier since December 2021. This company went bust in the last quarter of 2021 and it is currently being managed by Alvarez & Marshal Europe LLP. All customers of the company are currently being transferred to Scottish Power.

How long has Orbit Energy been in business?

Orbit Energy was officially created as a company on 31^st December 2015, before having its name changed, the company was first called Thistle Energy Supply Limited. While the company itself was created in 2015, it did not start operating until 2018, when it was officially founded as Orbit Energy and it made a deal with Shell Energy Europe Ltd to be its supplier.

As of 01 December 2021, Orbit Energy went bust, meaning that it ceased operating as a UK energy supplier. This means that while the company was officially created a little less than 6 years ago, it only operated for around 3 years.

Does Orbit Energy have exit fees?

Orbit Energy did have exit fees for customers applying to its 12 MONTH FIX plan. These tariffs are not available anymore since the company ceased operating and all of its customers will be switched completely for free onto Scottish Power.

Who is Orbit Energy owned by?

Orbit Energy was created and initially owned by Utilisoft Limited. The company that founded and launched Orbit Energy as a UK energy supplier in 2018, operated it until 2020 when it was acquired by Genie Energy Ltd.

Is Orbit Energy a Renewable Energy Provider?

While Orbit Energy initially did not deliver green power and all of its gas & power came from Shell Energy Ltd., it started delivering 100% renewable energy on 01 October 2019. From that date until December 2021 when the company ceased operating, Orbit Energy always delivered 100% renewable energy.

Verdict on Orbit Energy

Orbit Energy operated for around 3 years until it officially ceased operations on 01 December 2021. Initially, the company did not provide green energy to its customers, however, it switched to green energies in 2019 and started providing clean energy to its customers ever since.

While it was operating, Orbit Energy delivered relatively cheap gas & electricity tariffs, which were at least 5% cheaper than the price cap set by Ofgem. The company had a relatively short life regarding other energy suppliers in the UK.

We can say that Orbit Energy was not among the best energy suppliers, however, it was relatively good. Almost 50% of its customers thought it was great, but several problems regarding billing accuracy, customer service, and many other aspects affected the quality of service that they offered.

If you were a customer of Orbit Energy, there is no need to worry about the company going bust, Ofgem, Orbit Energy, and Scottish Power is taking good care of you. During the switch, you will keep on having electricity and gas supply. During the final steps of the switch, all of your credits will be transferred to Scottish Power, your new electricity supplier.