The first casualty of Britain’s recent gas supply shock has emerged after a small supply start-up said it would need to close due to tough energy market conditions.

The closure of Brighter World Energy comes just weeks after the UK gas market rocketed to five-year highs, raising fears of a financial crunch for small suppliers.

The energy minnow, set up a little over a year ago, said it had made the “difficult decision” to shut the business because market conditions had made its ‘buy-to-give’ business model unsustainable, according to The Telegraph.

The supplier had hoped to set itself apart within the crowded energy supply market by promising to help install a solar-powered micro-grid in an African village for every 2,000 customers it signed up.

“We have taken the tough, but responsible, decision to close at this time, because we no longer believe that market conditions, or our underlying operation, make for a sustainable business model in the long term,” said Cheryl Latham, the supplier’s chief executive, on the supplier’s website.

The gas price shock, which ripped through the market at the end of last year, has reignited fears that smaller suppliers may fold under the pressure of higher costs.

The risk of a gas supply crisis was sparked last month by the emergency shutdown of the UK’s most important North Sea pipeline amid technical issues in Norwegian waters. The next day a deadly explosion at a key European gas hub compounded fears and drove prices higher.

In the wake of the market surge it emerged that Flow Energy and Spark Energy both missed a payment deadline for their share of a Government scheme that helps vulnerable customers pay their winter gas bills.

But the aftershock is likely to hit standard energy account holders too as suppliers begin to raise tariffs to meet the higher costs.