In the Uk, open deregulated energy has existed market since the late 1990’s. Explained this means that the households and small businesses have range choices of who provides their gas and electricity. The original increase in competition planned to help drive down energy costs have not created as much choice as you might expect.
For a long time the UK did not have a deregulated energy market. There was very little options for home owners and business to choose who provides their gas and their electricity. The main national suppliers were British Gas for gas and dependent on your location in the country there was regional Electricity Company.
British Gas used to be the monopoly energy supplier in the UK in the late 1990s. This means that they were the only supplier of gas to homes and business. The only other option was to have LPG gas tank more akin to rural homes.
Prior to deregulation in the UK energy market there were fourteen regional energy companies that supplied electricity to homes and business. This meant that there was only one choice of energy supplier and they could fix the prices so you could not shop around to find cheaper deals.
The regulator Ofgem introduced the relaxed and open gas and electricity market in the UK in a number of stages. The first stage opened up the gas supply market to allow new gas companies to compete for business and try and under cut the main gas supplier British Gas. The next stage introduced more competition in the electricity market to give new electrcity suppliers a chance to supply electricity in to “host” regions.
The United Kingdom has an open and deregulated energy market. This gives the householder and businessman a chance to choose who suppliers their gas and electricity to their home or their business. The choice is restricted to around 18 different energy suppliers.
In the UK Energy suppliers provide a great a range of “tariffs” that they offer to the consumer. These tariffs include the more costly pay as you go tariffs, to paper billing to the cheapest deals on the market, managing you bills online through their web sites.
The Uk energy market has seen prices increase year on year. To see what you could save on your gas and electricity bills try visiting an energy price comparison web site.