Case study
Office of Electricity Regulation (OFFER)
Establishing a competitive market for electricity supply- a world first for Great Britain
The Office of Electricity Regulation (OFFER) was charged by the Government with overseeing the establishment of a competitive market for domestic electricity supply in Great Britain by 1998. The scale of the undertaking was massive and unprecedented, effectively requiring an industry to be re-engineered. A new legal framework had to be established and nearly all fundamental industry processes needed to change, to enable suppliers to inter-trade and customers to change supplier.
OFFER (now known as the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets, or Ofgem) appointed PA to coordinate the program of work across the industry, ensuring that all elements necessary to introduce competition were defined, 'owned' and fitted together. This included setting up an industry-wide program management structure to synchronize the work of 18 separate industry organizations, each with individual major change programs. The market opened without any significant operational problems, allowing customers to choose their electricity supplier, without risk to continuity of supply. By September 1999, over 12% of customers had switched supplier, benefiting from lower prices.
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