Ringing the changes

摘要

The UK's essential basic service industries are in the throes of far-reaching and permanent change. The paradoxical combination of greater market liberalisation and tightening regulation are forcing its participants to revamp their operations to make acceptable returns. Monopolies in the utility sectors ― such as gas pipeline companies, electricity distributors and the owners of water infrastructure ― face ever-stricter controls on the charges they can levy for their 'common carrier' services. 'Commodity suppliers' are having to survive in an almost entirely market-led environment. In the case of gas the two parts of the utility business were separated. Pipeline company Transco was first split into a ring-fenced arm of British Gas, to act as a common carrier for a raft of gas shippers and suppliers, and then finally spun off as Lattice.