Retail Market
I didn’t really go out on a limb in my last post when I predicted that energy markets would continue to make headlines this year – the last few days have seen a lot of people wondering what on earth is happening with gas [...]
In recent months there have been increasing calls for the introduction of prudential regulation in the energy markets, in response to the large number of suppliers that has failed this year. Supplier failures are a cause for concern because, unlike in many other industries [...]
Retail market pressures continue with the news that Ofgem has confirmed this year’s record Renewables Obligation (“RO”) mutualisation of £218 million, and Elexon has confirmed the proposed record Credit Assessment Price level of £305 /MWh. There is also bad news for Ofgem as Citizens [...]
Today I was invited to speak at this month's meeting of the Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies on the subject of the current energy crisis, and what should be done about it. Here is my presentation, setting out the regulatory mistakes that resulted in [...]
There has been a slew of energy market news in the past couple of days, but none of it is good. Yesterday, Zog Energy became the 29th energy supplier to fail this year. The company had 11,700 domestic customers and has entered the Supplier [...]
This evening I received Ofgem's response to my Open Letter in which I asked it to explain why it is not meeting the objectives set out in the price cap legislation. The reply was brief, containing a summary of my letter, a short response [...]
Legend has it that when a great fire broke out in Rome in 64 AD, Emperor Nero played music (unlikely to be an actual fiddle since those were not invented until the 11th century). The moral of the story is that Nero was both [...]
Six more energy supplier failures have been annouced this week. Monday saw the closure of Bluegreen Energy (which supplied around 5,900 domestic and a small number of non-domestic customers). On Tuesday four suppliers ceased trading: Zebra Power (around 14,800 domestic customers), Omni Energy (around [...]
Today Ofgem has written to suppliers to outline its response to current market conditions. It is difficult not to conclude that the regulator is inhabiting some strange alternative reality in which the usual rules of economics don’t apply – its proposals to consult on [...]
The failure of GoTo Energy on 18 October brought the total number of supplier failures this year to 16, with 14 since August. Questions are increasingly being asked of Ofgem’s handling of the crisis, with many accusing the regulator of being asleep at the [...]