MSE News: Guest Comment: Shake-up will aid energy market 15 July 2011 at 10:27AM in Energy 5 replies 1.4K views

Former_MSE_Guy

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"As prices rise, Andrew Wright, from the energy regulator, says a planned overhaul will help consumers find the top deals ..."

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Guest Comment: Shake-up will aid energy market

Reaper

We are proposing to make the large suppliers auction up to 20% of their power so new and smaller companies will find it easier to enter the market and compete for the Big Six's customers.

Interesting but I hope there is some provisioning for preventing them bidding for each others 20%, otherwise they can push up the price and ensure new entrants either can't get in or can only get in at an uncompetative price.

oakhouse13

Hurry up.

Consumers who want to buy energy to stay alive through the winter have had no choice but to create multimillionaires like the owner of uswitch and save moneysupermarket from a profits warning to the City because it unexpectedly made so much money out of commission handling energy switches all because the only way to compare prices with 70,000 tariffs is by computer.

cepheus

There are currently a huge number of different price deals on the market – over 400. But our reforms would sweep away this complexity for the majority of customers – those on standard, open-ended deals. They would reduce the number of deals and make those that remain simple to compare.

This will enable around 75% of customers to choose the best deal by comparing just a single price. And if you don't want to shop around, you'll still know exactly what you're paying for your energy

Seems a good idea, more choice is often just an excuse to confuse customers.

It would also be useful to have one fixed rate so consumers are encouraged to use less energy.

jamesd

Does Ofgem have a view on whether I should be prevented from being in a tenancy agreement as a statutory periodic tenant subject to two months notice or whether I should be prohibited from buying a variable rate mortgage?

While I appreciate a desire for simplicity, a bar on open-ended variable rate deals does not seem necessary or consistent with parliamentary guidance on rather more important matters than energy supply. A reference price and link to it, much like that for a tracker mortgage seem simple and avoids the need to continually make explicit choices to avoid ending up on a default plan that is unlikely to be the most competitive available.

Requiring fixed deals that cause consumers to fall into what is an equivalent of the much-maligned SVR mortgage rate does not seem like an improvement in consumer protection. A benchmark related to a well known price or prices and the fuel mix of a particular supplier seems to offer better protection.

botned

ofgem is a joke, a total and complete joke. The energy companies are crooks, total and complete crooks. That is all that needs to be said.