ALMOST 1.4 million homes in France have ditched EDF for a rival electricity supplier, new figures have revealed.

The French Energy Regulation Commission, CRE, said competing energy firms including Direct Energie and Poweo had doubled their customer numbers last year, up from 698,000 at the end of 2008.

However the market is still dominated by state-owned EDF, with new competitors accounting for just 4.6% of household accounts and 7.6% of businesses.

Rival gas suppliers to GDF (such as Altergaz and Poweo) recorded 637,000 household customers at the end of 2009, up 53% on the previous year.
France has agreed to fully open up the electricity market to competition by July 1, putting an end to the monopoly currently enjoyed by EDF.

The European Union warned France last year that it faced a huge fine if it failed to liberalise the electricity supply business and continued to protect the position of EDF as the dominant player in the market.

Brussels has criticised the French system of regulated tariffs offered by EDF and GDF, which in many cases are below the market rate.