EDF Energy chief urges industry to work with CMA

EDF Energy chief executive Vincent De Rivaz has called on the industry to work with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to implement its recommendations “without delay”.

In a blog, De Rivaz said that making the remedies happen across the whole industry “will be a challenge”, but added that “we must succeed”.

He wrote that the CMA has “rightly focussed” on putting the retail supply of energy to domestic and small business customers “at the heart of the proposed remedies”.

“What they have concluded is that too few customers are benefiting from the full power of the intense competition between suppliers,” he said. “This is because they are not making an active choice of tariff or supplier.”

De Rivaz called on suppliers to make sure the “best digital tools” are available and trusted by customers, so that they can “take advantage of these big changes”.

He said that, although EDF “strongly supports the overall direction the remedies package” it has urged the CMA to consider fairness and ensure all suppliers small and large face the same package of remedies.

“Today’s energy market contains large and small suppliers, plus price comparison sites and third party operators,” he wrote. “All suppliers large and small should face the same package of remedies from the CMA. We welcome and want competition – but we also ask for fairness. At least one of the so-called small suppliers already has more than one million customers.

“Customers deserve to be able to trust the industry wherever they deal with it and that includes the many price comparison websites.

“Ultimately everyone benefits if they are effectively scrutinised and regulated – trust is a cornerstone of any business.”

Proposed remedies

The CMA published its provisional findings in March, proposing a temporary price control for the 4 million customers on pre-payment meters, and the creation of an Ofgem-controlled database of disengaged customers who have been on a standard variable tariff for more than three years.

Other proposed remedies include:

– Removal of the four-tariff cap imposed under Retail Market Reform.

– Giving more data, such as customer meter numbers, to price comparison websites (PCWs) and other intermediaries, and allowing them to negotiate exclusive deals with suppliers. In return, PCWs must be transparent about how they cover the market.

– Measures to help new suppliers compete for PPM customers and reduce barriers such as personal debt issues that make it difficult for such customers to switch.

– A requirement that the approximately 700,000 households on non-Economy 7 restricted meters are allowed to switch to cheaper single-rate tariffs without requiring a meter replacement.

– A range of measures to help microbusinesses.

– Ensuring the transparency of green subsidies that go on the customer’s bill and assessing their impact beforehand, with a clear rationale for the allocation of funding to different technologies.

– Reforms to the electricity and gas settlement processes to lower costs to consumers by enabling more accurate measurement of consumption and more efficient supply – and to enable the full benefit of smart meters to be realised.