Electricity and gas: You choose!

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/videos/energy/2007_06_electricity_ga...
From July 1st 2007, it will be possible for household customers throughout the European Union to choose their electricity and gas suppliers.
In exercising this choice, which is not an obligation, consumers are boosting competition between energy suppliers --and that has to be to their advantage.
To be able to make really informed choices, customers need to have access to detailed and open information. This right to information, along with other fundamental rights which guarantee consumer protection, will be included in a future European Charter on the Rights of Energy Consumers.
This video shows the situation in Great Britain where the electricity and gas markets have been opened up to competition for domestic consumers for several years now and in the Wallonia Region of Belgium where liberalisation was introduced on January 1st 2007.
Download: http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/video_prod_en.cfm?type=detail&prodid...

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• eutube
• Electricity
• Gas
• Competition
• Domestic
• Consumers
• Energy
• European
• Commission

[AG0525]

At the end, all this liberasation means that goverments will force energy distributors to allow one more distributor ... so you electrisity bill could look like: Nuclear fac/windmill + main high voltage distributor + smaller distributor + another distributor + local distributor + street distributor + your neighbour. Wow ... no wonder the electristy prices wil skyrocket, even having in mind that production cost will not be so high. The video shows only one side and doesnt go deeper enough.

[AG0525]

Well i am from Lithuania, considered dumb, so explain me how energy "liberasation"  works.

As video showed, we have: produsers, distributors and ... and consumers.

So, i dont get it. At the end, we have distributors, wich decides the price for end user. And how can we have MORE distributors ("competition") if there is ONLY ONE cabel and GAS PIPE going to your house. ONE! There is only ONE high voltage cable grid. ONE!

[vlfour]

I welcome the competition and I'm certainly glad to see deregulation take place in so many states. I signed up for great rates usuing a company called TransCo Power that lets you finds rates online and lock in a contract. Works for me!

tp.emexpower (dot) com

[sgrave1]

yeah consumer must inform themself, we deal with the devil, technicaly if you don't know something it's not an excuse of the consequence we face, it's the result of the lack of knowledge

Les consommateurs doivent s'informer, nous traitons avec le diable, techniquement si on ne connait pas quelques chose ce n'est pas une excuse face à la conséquence, c'est le résultat de manque de savoir

[md22mint]

They tried this in Texas and before liberalization of the energy system one KWH was 5 - 10 cents and now its about 16 - 20cents per KWH.

[pe7r0vsky]

good point of view. In Canada, for example, the electricity is controlled, produced and regulated by one state-controlled company, and that way, electricity in canada is relatively cheap.

[donex96]

Im from Indonesia, a small country in south east Asia. In my opinion its ridiculous to make liberalization in energy market. What will happen next?? The suppliers can dictcate the price. And now, all developed countries, with IMF as a motor, has forced privatisation in our state owned electricity company. This scheme is already succed in our telecommunication company. If the reason is the price, why dont the government make policies to regulate the price.

[raphamar80]

Tesla ruled !!

[timmo2k]

correction. It is known EXACTLY what electricity is, you just dont understand it. I will try and explain; electricity is the flow of positively charged (in terms of photons) electrons from a positive "object" , to a negatively charged(in terms of photons) object". The positively charged object or area is known as the annode, and the negatively charged object or area is known as the cathode.

[andygavin]

"The only way to get lower prices is to encourage competition" Nonsense, what about regulation?  Simply opening a market does not necessarily drive down prices. Providers move as a group, like with recent prices. Market prices are also effected by speculative investment too. Markets don't prevent price fixing and need to be regulated. It is unclear to me whether good regulation of few operators is preferable.

[haardkaar]

This isn't something EU should care about. It's up to citizens in each country to decide. EU is not democratic by forcing this on us to comply to this. This viedo clip is nothing more than propaganda. The reality is completely different. We got the right to choose who's going to rip us off. We didn't get the right to choose a reliable and cheap electricity market.

[atotzisbezet]

i'm dutch and can tell you that it aint getting cheaper... its the other way around... its so fucking expensive nowadays people cant pay their gas bills anymore.