Northern Ireland Electricity

jchrishall2000

Just as Phoenix Gas has recently seen new competition arriving on the Northern Ireland scene, does anyone know if NIE are ever going to have their monopoly on the Northern Ireland domestic marketplace broken? OK, so there is a regulator but surely if there was competition surely we'd all get a better deal. Electricity in NI is already costlier than elsewhere in UK and I understand some of the issues around interconnectors etc. It sickens me a bit to think that consumers on the mainland can shop around with uswitch.com etc but we're behind (as usual?)
Anyone got any comments?
Ta.

ginger_nuts

Northern Ireland is to small for competition .The electricity has to be there on demand 24 7 . An interconnector might help , but who will pay for the interconnector . Many years ago there was on interconnector working between NI and ROI but it was bombed several times . There are people looking for an interconnector with Scotland but I cant see anyone wanting to pay for it .

leftieM

I think it's unfair that any business should have a monopoly as NIE do. Surely you either have a proper competitive market or you have state-run monopolies that are accountable to parliament.

D.A.

ginger_nuts wrote:

There are people looking for an interconnector with Scotland but I cant see anyone wanting to pay for it .

Errr....

http://www.nie.co.uk/community/archive/newsstory.asp?idcode=358

Although it's made sod all difference to prices.

NAR

Let's get real, we have a country the size of Yorkshire, cut off from the mainland. Who in their right mind, business wise, is going to think of taking on NIE.

IvanOpinion

I believe that ScottishPower already offers electricity to businesses (could be wrong) and have heard rumours about and interconnector South of the border as well. Has anybody done any kind of price comparison with our tariffs and others throughout the UK? I have vague memories of someone saying that it was the generation costs that were the problem not the supply business.

Ivan

DesG

I have distant memories the electricity would be opened up for competition for domestic some time this year, but I could be wrong. June or July rings a bell.

Cheers, Des.

declanmcc

Hardly surprising was it??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4762064.stm