[Kevin Sharpe]

"The Federation of Small Businesses and the consumer watchdog Which? have called for the “Big Six” energy companies to be broken up, adding pressure on regulators to refer the energy companies to competition authorities this week."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...s-urge-break-up-of-Big-Six-energy-giants.html

 

[Paul]

Do we need someone to do the same for Chargemaster PLC? What are they, 70% of UK charge infrastructure, government grant/subsidy supported?



Grumble grumble...

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

Do we need someone to do the same for Chargemaster PLC? What are they, 70% of UK charge infrastructure, government grant/subsidy supported?

To be honest this was all completely predictable and I'm a little surprised that it's taken EV drivers so long to realise

If we want something different then we must make it happen ourselves... government is woefully inept at times of transition

 

[Paul]

Oi, I'm new around these parts!

But yeah, it's crazy from the start.

 

[Grant Thomas]

I think OLEV is learning from it's growing pains; I think they are also between a rock and a hard place. They need to support businesses setting up a national charging network with woefully low returns for the first few years. Remember this all has to be a business case; not philanthropy.

Yes there are many mistakes we can point out along the way, companies with dubious intent and pricing models; but I hope that the next set of OLEV funding will help fill in some of the gaps like workplace and on-street charging.

As we have seen on other forum posts even when charities give the charging hardware away; doesn't stop a hotel with a charging point wanting £15 for a few pence of electric. Adoption requires business-led, government-led and driver engagement

 

[Mark J Constable]

If there's a breakup, it'll have to apply across the market - there can't be a breakpoint based on size. I can see one possible outcome is the separation of generation and supply and going back to the Pooling principle (swept away in 2001 by the goverment of the day), but supply businesses aren't a great investment - another major supplier has had their supply business up for sale for 2 years, with nothing on the horizon.

In terms of which companies' consumers risk losing out the most, those with their proposition and marketing based on their generation mix may be disproportionately impacted, because they'll have to bid commercially for that output.