28 October 2015

After 23 years, competition in the energy market is still not working

Energy deregulation started in the UK in 1992 under Margaret Thatcher. There have been many changes and adjustments since then to try and get the market working properly. But it is not.

The scale of the problem is shown by the news headlines below taken from Utility Week and all from the same day, 28 October 15. All of them indicate problems in the markets which are meant to give us cheap and plentiful energy but which are failing on both counts.

Continual failure after all this time should suggest to somebody that fragmenting the energy industry and trying to introduce competition when there was none before is a bad idea and is never going to work.

Market rigging concerns surface as winter supply crunch looms

UK generators could exploit a regulatory loophole to inflate market prices this winter as National Grid seeks to secure power supply, industry sources have warned.

Cut prices or risk proving the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) right, warns Nolan

Ofgem chief executive Dermot Nolan has hit out at energy suppliers over their failure to pass on historic lows in the price of gas at the same time that the sector is undergoing an extensive competition probe.

Suppliers must publicise collective switches Ofgem says

Suppliers must include collective switch tariffs in the Cheapest Tariff Message (CTM) required on customer bills, Ofgem has ruled.

Electricity market design is stifling innovation, regulators warned

Electricity market design is “stifling” the deployment of innovative technologies and business models Pöyry has warned European electricity regulators.

RIIO must evolve, urges former National Grid exec

RIIO (Revenue = Incentives + Innovation + Outputs) must be allowed to evolve in response to the transformation of the energy system says Energy Systems Catapult chair, Nick Winser.

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