The sudden price spike has been fuelled by Ukraine-Russia tensions, low levels of storage across Europe, the early retirement of several nuclear power plants and lower than expected levels of wind.

It has piled pressure on domestic energy suppliers, who are constrained on how much they can charge households on variable tariffs by a price cap and so have effectively been forced to sell power at a loss.

Firms that had not secured energy many months in advance – a practice known as “hedging” – have been the hardest hit as they had no cushion to protect them. On top of this, some have also had to shoulder the sudden costs of taking on customers transferred from collapsed rivals.

At its peak, the UK gas price stood at just over 450 pence per therm in December. However, City analysts have warned it could jump to as much as 1,000 pence per therm if war breaks out between Russia and Ukraine.

On Saturday, Martin Young, an energy analyst at Investec, said an increase to the price cap in April from £1,277 to £1,971 per year would ease some pressure on suppliers.

But he added: “I would certainly not rule out more failures, because even though we have a considerably smaller number left now, businesses sometimes fail because of cash flow problems.

“They will be able to recoup some of their money in April but for the moment there is obviously a gap between when they have had to pay out and when they will get some of that money back. And anything that puts upward pressure on gas prices is something that is going to exacerbate the situation.”

In an appeal to fellow European leaders at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Boris Johnson said: “We must now wean ourselves off dependence on Putin’s oil and gas.

“I understand the costs and complexities of this effort and the fact this is easier said than done… but the lessons of the last few years cannot be ignored.”