Competition and Markets Authority

  • Regulation and policy

    Electricity transmission charging reform – overtaken by changing priorities?

    Charging for the transmission network is never out of the development process for long. From major reviews, such as that initiated under Project Transmit in 2010, to significant reforms such as removing the triad benefit from distributed generation in 2018, and a host of smaller developments, change seems the only...

  • Net zero corporates and ESG

    Major energy policy and regulatory changes discussed in our December Net Zero Business forum

    On 10 December 2020, Cornwall Insight hosted its Net Zero Business Forum. Held four days before the release of the UK government’s Energy White Paper, the focus was on the Prime Minister’s 10-point plan, the Spending Review and the National Infrastructure Strategy. Head of Relationship Development Robert Buckley and Head...

  • Business supply and services

    A look back at 2020 part 3

    As we take our first steps into 2021, we continue to look back at the biggest developments in the UK energy markets in 2020, setting us up for the significant year ahead. The mergers and exits from the supply market that were seen in 2019 continued into 2020 and led...

  • Regulation and policy

    Editor’s Pick | From little acorns: Ofgem’s state of the market report

    This article was originally published in Energy Spectrum Issue 686 on 14 October 2019. Ofgem published its State of the Market 2019 Report on 3 October, giving us a comprehensive overview of the retail and wholesale energy markets and much more besides. Now in its third year, the report sees Ofgem diligently...

  • Home supply and services

    Editor’s Pick | The Dark Arts of removing price caps

    The regulator is facing a difficult challenge. Tasked by the legislation that introduced the mechanism, Ofgem now finds itself in the position of establishing whether competition in the market is “effective” enough to remove the cap on default energy tariffs. It has the opportunity to make the decision each year...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Five things we learnt from this week’s Energy Spectrum | 671

    On 12 June the EMR Delivery Body announced that the T-1 Capacity Market auction for delivery year 2019-20 cleared at £0.77/kW – the lowest clearing price ever to be achieved in a GB capacity auction. In this week’s Energy Perspective, we pick apart the reasons behind the clearing price falling so low....

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Five things we learnt from Energy Spectrum | 666

    The Labour Party’s Bringing Energy Home plan, published on 16 May, set out the party’s proposals for bringing GB’s energy networks back into public ownership. In doing so, they firmly switch the political spotlight from suppliers on to network companies and challenge the industry more generally on fairness and its own efficiency....

  • Water

    Ofwat proposes widening retail margins from 2020

    Limits on the margin that water retailers may earn from their customers in the business market may be loosened from April 2020 under new proposals from the regulator. Ofwat issued a consultation on 11 December in which it set out plans that would see the cap on allowed margins for...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    This week’s Energy Spectrum overview | 29 May 2018

    Energy Perspective In this week’s Energy Perspective, we look ahead to this summer, a period that we believe could prove to be ground-breaking in terms of testing some long-held theories about flexible power systems. With the electricity market in rapid in transition we explore a range of emerging market phenomena...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    This week’s Energy Spectrum overview | 14 May 2018

    In this week’s Energy Perspective, we consider the current options for appealing industry code changes, following the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issuing its final determination on the allocation of costs in relation to the EDF Energy/SSE appeal on an electricity transmission charging rule change (CMP261), relating to alleged breach...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    This week’s Energy Spectrum overview | 8 May 2018

    In this week’s Energy Perspective, we examine the progress in setting the broader energy price cap. The challenge now, we argue, transfers to Ofgem and the industry in implementing it. Ofgem has been seeking views on different ways the various elements of the price cap might be calculated through a...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    This week’s Energy Spectrum overview | 30 April 2018

    In this week’s Energy Perspective, we explore how for storage the preference to move to the behind-the-meter proposition is increasing as the initial interest in grid-scale assets wavers. We argue that there are many good reasons for this trend, including the fact that it allows organisations to maximise revenues by...

  • Business supply and services

    Pricing strategies in the SME market

    Following the transparency measure introduced by the CMA in June 2017, suppliers servicing microbusinesses are required to make their rates easily available to customers. Whilst the majority of suppliers evaluated in our SME pricing reports have introduced online quotation tools to fulfil this requirement, the pricing strategies they reveal vary...