Thousands of electricity customers transferred from failing firm to heavily criticised operator

More than 30,000 electricity and gas customers face a new supplier after the collapse of the Velkommen group, but the company set to take over their contracts has itself drawn repeated regulatory censure.

Denmark’s Finanstilsynet, the financial watchdog, has previously issued orders against Energidrift A/S for publishing misleading prices on the official comparison site elpris.dk. Consumer watchdogs and price comparison services now rank the company among the lowest-rated suppliers on the market.

Four Velkommen companies—Velkommen A/S, Vedvarende A/S, Nettopower ApS and b.energy gas ApS—entered reconstruction proceedings earlier this month, halting payments to creditors while restructuring efforts continue. The group has faced long-standing complaints over high advance-billing demands that were not refunded when customers left.

Reconstruction administrator Flemming Jensen has proposed selling the four firms’ customer contracts to Energidrift A/S for 16.7 million kroner. The deal, covering 30,265 electricity customers, 12,169 IT-security clients, 6,162 mobile-phone users, 2,749 gas customers and 1,047 production clients, would provide funds to pay part of the group’s accumulated debt. If the largest creditors do not object, the transfer takes effect on Saturday; the four companies are still expected to go bankrupt at a court hearing on Tuesday.

Christian Reinholdt, operator of the comparison service strømligning.dk, called the sale a poor outcome for the transferred electricity customers. “It’s probably one of the worst suppliers you could end up with,” he said. He accused Energidrift of hidden fees that inflate bills above agreed prices, missing or misleading customer information and large advance charges on invoices.

Energidrift shares an address, owners and management with Edison EL, another supplier that was reported to police in December 2024 for failing to repay customer credit balances despite earlier orders from the Danish Utility Regulator. Edison EL’s rating on eloversigt.dk is the lowest among 23 listed suppliers.

The Danish Consumer Council’s latest test in March 2026 also ranked an Energidrift product at the bottom, and the council generally advises consumers to avoid suppliers that demand advance payments.