Benelux : February 17, 2010
As previously outlined by NUS Consulting, competition in the Belgian energy markets hardly exists while in neighboring Holland both residential and business customers benefit from the truly competitive marketplace.
Apparently, our views are taking hold. After previously announcing investigations into possible price manipulations by Electrabel in the Belgian electricity market, the federal regulator, CREG, announced a similar investigation in the supplier’s gas pricing. While Electrabel is downplaying the CREG investigations pointing out their gas prices in Belgium are in the middle of the field when compared to other international markets, we believe they are missing the entire point – namely that competition scarcely exists in the Belgian energy markets and prices could be lower with its introduction.
Most businesses have experienced increases in their gas prices, despite the fact that an abundance of gas exists in the European markets. Electrabel has defended the increases by citing its own supply contracts as well as the fact that gas pricing is linked to oil indexes. We have long taken the view that gas pricing should not be tied to oil as this does not accurately reflect the realities of the European gas market.