On 13/04/17 09:37, Robin wrote:
On 13/04/2017 08:24, Jeff Layman wrote:

Is that what a deregulated market is supposed to be doing?

As others have said, yes. Many people think they want a much more
tightly regulated market. Oddly, they are rarely people who wanted to
be spared choice in other areas and would have been happy to drive a
Trabant.

But I don't know if a deregulated market is supposed to be doing that.
It might be the result of deregulation, but is it the intended result?

Just make a comparison with food shopping. You want to try a different
coffee so you look on the supermarket shelves. Maybe there are ten or so
different brands and each has two or three jar sizes, and perhaps a
couple of "special offers". Quite difficult to make your mind up, maybe,
based on cost. But what if there were 1000 options? Sure, you can look
at the shelf labels which usually show "X pence for y grams" or
whatever, and save some time finding the cheapest, but it would still
take ages. And if that was the case for *everything* you wanted to buy,
you'd spend your whole life shopping, as probably next week the offers
would be different.

It's so much easier with petrol. You drive past a garage which says
120p/l. The next garages could be above or below that, so you know which
to buy. Correct me if I'm wrong, but petrol is just another type of
deregulated fuel, so why is it so different for gas and electricity? I
do believe that Martin Brown is quite right " The idea is to offer so
much choice consumers can't see the wood for the trees."

If you want a comparison site try

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

Thanks, I'd missed that link on MSE's rather confusing Gas and Elec
pages. I'll have a look.

--

Jeff