The UK Energy Market

The United Kingdom (UK) has operated an open deregulated energy market since the late 1990’s. Simply explained this means that the consumer and businesses have a wider choice of who provides their gas and electricity. But the original increase in competition planned to help drive down energy costs have not created as much choice as you might expect.

Before the UK deregulated its energy markets, there was little choice for the consumer in who provides their gas and their electricity. The traditional suppliers were British Gas for gas supplies and depending on where you lived in the country there was a regional Energy company.

The main gas supplier in the UK for many years was British Gas. To try to explain this means that there was only really one supplier of gas to homes and business, meaning no choice. The only other option, although not viable for the vast majority, was to have an LPG gas tank in your garden but these were costly and were more common in rural areas.

There were fourteen regional energy companies that provided electricity to homes and business before the energy market deregulated in the UK. This gave only one choice of gas and electricity supplier and they could fix the prices so you no choice in finding a cheaper deal.

The Open deregulated gas and electricity market in the UK was brought in, in stages when it was first introduced. Stage one opened up the gas market to allow new gas suppliers to compete for business and try and under cut British Gas the main gas supplier. The next phase allowed 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.

Energy suppliers in the UK have a range of “tariffs” that they offer to the consumer. These vary from the more expensive 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.