In the late 1990’s the United Kingdom opened its doors to create a more deregulated energy market by allowing completion in what was a static closed market. To try and explain this, it means that the households and small businesses have range choices of who provides their gas and electricity. The increase in competition was planned to help drive down energy costs have not created as much choice as you might expect.
Before deregulation in the Uk energy market there was very little or no choice in who supplied you gas and electricity. This lack of choice for home owners and business to choose who provides their gas and electricity meant the government had to try and control these companies to stop them inflating energy prices. The main national suppliers were British Gas for gas and dependent on your location in the country there was regional Electricity 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.
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 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.
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 over the past number years, year on year. To see what you could save on your energy bills try visiting a gas and electricity price comparison web site SaveOnYourBills.co.uk.