Electricity opened up to competition
Companies will have full freedom to compete with EDF to supply domestic and business power from the middle of next year
HOMES and businesses across France will have a broader choice of who supplies their electricity from the middle of next year.
France has agreed to fully open up the electricity market to competition by July 1, putting an end to the distribution monopoly currently enjoyed by EDF.
It comes after the European Union warned France earlier this 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.
Home electricity was partly liberalised in 2007 – three years after a similar opening up for businesses.
However this only applied to the final step in the production line: selling power to individual customers. Rival providers were still reliant on EDF to provide the distribute the energy.
Prime Minister François Fillon said the new scheme would now make it possible for EDF’s rivals, such as GDF Suez, Poweo and Direct Energie, to buy power directly from the grid at competitive rates that they could then sell on to customers.
He said this would benefit consumers and would put pressure on suppliers to compete on price.
France has also promised to scrap the fixed rates it charges to big businesses. The EU was particularly concerned about these rates, which it said were artificially low and made it impossible for rival providers to compete.
