The Morning Warning List · 21 October 2026
Velkommen group
More than 32,000 homes were moved to a new electricity supplier in one day. What went so wrong?
Cheap electricity, sold to homes.
The Velkommen group sold electricity to Danish homes through four companies: Velkommen, Nettopower, Power Fuel and Vedvarende. Like many small suppliers, they bought power and sold it on, competing on price.
A fair bill, and your money back when you leave.
Every electricity supplier makes the same basic promise: when you leave, you get a final bill, and any money you are owed comes back quickly.
- Refund customers who leave, on timeDanish electricity rulesBroken
- Follow the regulator’s order to repayForsyningstilsynet order, 14 Apr 2026Not followed
- Keep supplying its customersSupply agreementsEnded
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- How often refunds were late, in a chart
- Why a supplier’s cash can be its customers’ money
- Three lessons for every company that holds customer money
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Late, almost every time.
After many complaints, the regulator, Forsyningstilsynet, checked how the companies handled customers who left. Velkommen was late paying back money in at least 3,192 of 3,470 cases. Nettopower was late in 2,969 of 3,003.
On 30 June 2026 the grid companies Cerius and Radius ended their agreements, and more than 32,000 customers were moved to other suppliers.
Refunds paid late, as a share of cases checked
When customers’ money pays the bills.
A supplier that holds its customers’ money is, in a small way, a bank. If that money is used to pay today’s bills, every customer who leaves becomes a cash problem. Late refunds are often the first sign.
The grid companies, which are owed what they call a sizable sum in the millions, asked the court to declare the companies bankrupt. Three of them are now in reconstruction, and the regulator has reported two of them to the police for not following its order to repay. Nothing has been decided by a court.
Money you owe your customers is not your cash.
Former customers who are owed money can send a claim to the reconstructor. The Energy Appeals Board explains how.
From complaints to court
Three lessons for anyone holding customer money.
Keep customer money apart.
Money owed to customers belongs in its own account, never in the running budget.
Treat late refunds as an alarm.
The first late refund is a cash warning. Fix the cash, not the refund process.
Price for the bad months.
A supplier that wins on price alone has nothing left when power prices jump.
Never Spend the Money You Owe Your Customers
On 30 June 2026, more than 32,000 Danish homes were moved, in a single day, to an electricity company they had never chosen. Their old supplier had been called Velkommen, which means welcome, and joining had been easy. Leaving was another matter. When the regulator checked how departing customers got their money back, Velkommen had paid late in 3,192 of 3,470 cases, and its sister company Nettopower in 2,969 of 3,003. That is not a bad week. That is a pattern. Money you hold for your customers sits in your account, but it belongs to someone else. Keep it apart, as if it were already gone.
— Max Noble
The Velkommen companies did not fall because power is a bad business. They fell when customers stopped getting their money back.
From the book in preparationThe Laws of BANKRUPT · out 31 October 2027Read every law so far →
Every number traceable.
- Sjællandske Medier, 30 Jun 2026: 32,000 customers moved, regulator findings · sn.dk
- TV2 Kosmopol: grid companies ask for bankruptcy · tv2kosmopol.dk
- Lovguiden, 14 Apr 2026: regulator orders Velkommen to repay · lovguiden.dk
- Lovguiden, 8 Jul 2026: three companies in reconstruction, how to claim · lovguiden.dk
The grade, the three moves and the law are Max Noble’s analysis. Not investment advice.