The game of increasing profits while doing little to improve efficiency or provide the right levels of customer service is up
The energy watchdog’s call for a full investigation into the industry is a victory for consumer power over the big six suppliers, Ofgem itself and, to a lesser extent, politicians. It will cause some uncertainty for investors looking at much-needed new power plants over the next two years but it is ultimately better for them than the current situation, which is inherently unstable and unsustainable.
Ofgem is under new leadership and can discard the baggage of the past 10 years, when it was captured by the big six and failed to act robustly despite a bundle of evidence that the market was working for companies rather than consumers. Successive governments have allowed this situation to continue while failing to come up with a workable framework for modernising the creaking energy infrastructure and introducing lower-carbon power without placing an impossible burden on the consumer.