Energy 巨大（な）s 辞退する to 削減（する） prices

By TOM MCGHIE
Updated: 09:51 BST, 13 September 2009

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The 'Big Six' energy 巨大（な）s will 反抗する growing public 怒り／怒る and the 需要・要求するs of the energy regulator by 辞退するing to 削減（する） gas prices at least until the spring, にもかかわらず the fact that the UK is sitting on a glut of cheap 卸売 gas.

He ating up: Energy 巨大（な）s are 辞退するing to 削減（する） prices

The price 崩壊（する）d last week to 34p a therm, 反して this time last year it was £1.

Alistair Buchanan, 長，指導者 (n)役員／(a)執行力のある of 産業 監視者 Ofgem, has said continued high prices do not appear 正当化するd and 計画（する）s to '指名する and shame' the companies that 辞退する to adjust their 関税s to changing 卸売物価s.

- UK energy prices 落ちる seven times slower than 普通の／平均（する）

Last month, he wrote to all the companies, 需要・要求するing that they explain why they were not cutting prices while the cost of 卸売 gas was 落ちるing.

He is 推定する／予想するd to publish the 産業's 返答 before the end of the month and will 始める，決める out his 計画（する）s for 活動／戦闘.

Buchanan is under 圧力 to get 堅い because the 産業 is perceived to have 首尾よく 土台を崩すd his 役割 as a 消費者 支持する／優勝者.

However, he has only 限られた／立憲的な 力／強力にするs, 含むing another referral to the 競争 （売買）手数料，委託（する）／委員会／権限, which only last year （疑いを）晴らすd the Big Six - British Gas, npower, Scottish 力／強力にする, Scottish & Southern, EDF and Eon - of anticompetitive behaviour.

In their replies, the energy companies are 推定する／予想するd to argue that the gas 消費者s are buying today was bought by the energy companies up to two years ago when 卸売物価s were much higher.

They will also 強調する／ストレス that the '非，不，無-gas' elements of gas prices, 含むing items such as 輸送（する） costs and 政府 環境の 対策, have gone up by 44 per cent.

But last Friday one energy company, first:公共事業（料金）／有用性 発表するd that its online 関税 would be 削減（する） by 14.5 per cent and explained it was 反応するing to the 落ちる in 卸売物価s. にもかかわらず 後退，不況 and the 抱擁する oversupply of gas, 世帯s are still 支払う／賃金ing an 普通の／平均（する） 法案 of £1,200 a y ear.

によれば energy price 専門家 ICIS Heren, a major factor behind the 黒字／過剰 is that higher UK prices mean that 巨大（な） 液化するd natural gas タンカーs now ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる at Britain's 明言する／公表する-of-the-art 終点s with 増加するing frequency. 15% of UK gas now is 供給（する）d by LNG タンカーs compared with 事実上 nothing last year.

A 広報担当者 for the Energy Retailers' 協会 said: 'We have seen energy prices 落ちるing for the 広大な 大多数 of 顧客s this year.

'にもかかわらず these 落ちるs, the 卸売 market still remains volatile and a challenge for energy 供給者s coming up to the winter.

'顧客s have been 保護するd from the 大規模な rises in 卸売物価s last year, 卸売物価 rises that were not fully passed on at the time, this at a time when companies are 投資するing billions of 続けざまに猛撃するs in new 世代 capacity to 確実にする an 必須の, reliable and 安全な energy 供給（する） to their 顧客s.'