May 21, 2021: A federal bankruptcy court has ordered any remaining commercial customers of energy provider Brilliant Energy, LLC to be sent to their provider of last resort (POLR).
What does this mean?
Residential Customers
This new development does not impact residential customers. If you had service with Brilliant Energy for your home, your account will automatically transfer over to a new energy provider — Evolve Retail Energy, LLC (d/b/a Octopus Energy US). All residential customers should transition over to Octopus Energy US within the next week.
Business Customers of Brilliant Energy
Earlier this week, the Trustee for Brilliant Energy, LLC, asked for their bankruptcy court’s approval to drop its commercial customers to their provider of last resort (POLR). The court has just granted this approval.
What’s next?
The court has ordered for Brilliant Energy to make all reasonable efforts to drop/transition non-residential customers to POLR by May 28, 2021.
If you’re a business with electricity service through Brilliant Energy, you should soon be receiving an official notice informing you of these recent developments and your looming transition to POLR. This notice should also encourage you to voluntarily switch to an alternative retail energy provider (REP) prior to your transition to POLR, as well.
Please note that any and all termination fees for leaving Brilliant Energy and switching providers is now waived. If you are/were a commercial customer of Brilliant Energy, there is no penalty or fee for switching to another provider today.
Switch Providers Before Transitioning to POLR
The “Provider of Last Resort” is as the name implies — a provider you are transitioned to as a last resort. One of the roles of POLRs is to ensure that each home and business in Texas maintains uninterrupted electric service. While POLRs are reassuring and necessary in rare instances (like this one), this “fallback plan” comes at a steep price — electric rates charged by POLRs are exorbitant.
In short, providers of last resort are a stopgap solution.
If you need help finding an alternative provider, use our website to compare rates and plans from local providers — you can also speak to one of our energy consultants directly by calling 800.977.4020.