> e.g. electricity providers that add energy to the grid.
It makes sense that energy production should be competitive. But for energy supply I can choose from dozens of companies that all supply the same gas/electricty, using the same pipes. These energy supply companies are really just billing operations. The actual supply of electricity is done by National Grid, another private company, but with no competition. Same for gas, and Centrica.
I can't even discriminate between them based on whether they're likely to go bust; when an energy supplier goes bust, some other supplier is forced to take on all their customers. That is an incentive to not run the company finances responsibly (whther you're the one that goes bust, or the one that is forced to take over).
Regulators are consistently hopeless. Regulatory capture is part of it - half the executives in these companies used to work for the regulator. But part of it is that you simply can't make a competitive market just by having a regulator tell you how much profit you're allowed to make.
It makes sense that energy production should be competitive. But for energy supply I can choose from dozens of companies that all supply the same gas/electricty, using the same pipes. These energy supply companies are really just billing operations. The actual supply of electricity is done by National Grid, another private company, but with no competition. Same for gas, and Centrica.
I can't even discriminate between them based on whether they're likely to go bust; when an energy supplier goes bust, some other supplier is forced to take on all their customers. That is an incentive to not run the company finances responsibly (whther you're the one that goes bust, or the one that is forced to take over).
Regulators are consistently hopeless. Regulatory capture is part of it - half the executives in these companies used to work for the regulator. But part of it is that you simply can't make a competitive market just by having a regulator tell you how much profit you're allowed to make.