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The mass rollout of smart meters across the UK is “the way out” for Ofgem to help the regulator deal with the problem of a lack of competition in the retail market.
Speaking at the fifth annual Smart Metering UK and Europe Summit in London today, Maxine Frerk, partner for retail at Ofgem, said the mass rollout of smart meters in 2015 will help the regulator to solve the issue of competitiveness in the energy market.
She said: “We see the potential of smart metering to absolutely transform the retail market and it is really the way out for us for many of the problems we have around competition being less effective.”
She added there have been “glimmers” of the impact that smart meters will have on the energy market, adding that “quite a few” independent suppliers have entered the market due to the introduction of smart meters and they are “offering the customers something different to the big six”.
Frerk went on to say that the growth of the independent suppliers, who now have a 5 per cent market share, “is an indication to us of the potential that exists” in a smart enabled market.
She added: “We have new opportunities for new players to do things differently and that’s what we really need to stir up the market and make competition in the retail market really effective for consumers.”
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