EDF Energy calls for ‘petrol station forecourt’ pricing

One of the UK's biggest energy suppliers has called for single-unit pricing for gas and electricity to help consumers compare tariffs as easily as they currently shop around for petrol.

EDF Energy said it would introduce the system if all other suppliers did too.

This sounds like a great idea, but unfortunately the idea of simplifying the market for the benefit of the consumer hasn’t gone down that well with those in the industry.

Ofgem, the energy regulator, said the scheme wouldn’t be as easy to implement as it might appear, British Gas, the UK’s largest energy supplier, rejected the proposal, and Co-operative energy said this system would produce winners and losers.

But under the current system there are already winners, the energy companies, and losers, the consumers, and introducing the system proposed by EDF would, hopefully, break the status-quo.

While this is an idea that would be popular with a large majority of people, unless everybody involved in the energy industry signed up, and given that British Gas have rejected the idea, it will be resigned as a great idea that could have made a difference, but nobody wanted to act on it.

However, there is one way that this idea could yet be introduced, the government. Yes the much maligned coalition, who have already publicly called on energy companies to simplify their tariffs, could ramp up the pressure and push this through, whether they will or not is another matter.  

But I hope they do because it would be a shame to see an idea consigned to the history books under the heading ‘chance wasted’.