Competition in supply [electricity supply]

Competition in electricity supply has required the resolution of the following issues and difficulties: transparently priced third party access to electrical networks; a framework for electricity trading which balances the complexity of the flows on the electrical system with the requirements for relative simplicity in the corresponding pricing system; measurement of electricity flows to match the complexity of the trading system while minimising the risk of the owner of the electrical networks carrying any unacceptable electricity costs arising from disparities within the procedures for netting off and settling for the energy flows; a situation in which the costs of implementing competition do not form an undue barrier to the entry of competition; and the willingness of politicians to reduce their reliance on monopoly energy suppliers as a means of implementing energy policy. Competition will evolve as these issues are better understood and as they are progressed from their original imperfect state