2023-11-24 03:30:11
Liberalization transformed the duo into a trio. This shows that the French electricity and gas markets remain highly concentrated. Three companies, in fact, still have “around 90% of market share “, according to a report from the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) for the period 2020-2022, published on November 7. And this, despite the presence of around thirty suppliers on the individual market, open to competition since 2007, three years following that of professional customers.
The two historic players, EDF and Engie (formerly GDF), are still there. Created in 1946, these two companies worked for a long time in a quasi-monopoly on their own, respectively for the sale of electricity and for that of gas. From now on, liberalization pushes one to move partly into the territory of the other, even if each retains its main activity.
The opening to competition has opened the way for a third big player. This one owes its fortune to oil, since it is TotalEnergies (formerly Total). The French multinational is on the podium in electricity and gas supply thanks to the acquisition of the company Direct Energie in 2018. A way for it to diversify its activities.
Two thirds of households subscribed to EDF’s “blue tariff”
The trio included, in 2022, up to 94% of the shares for electricity and 88% for gas. That same year, the war in Ukraine and concerns over gas supplies caused energy prices to surge. This extraordinary context has increased the concentration of the sector.
“Few suppliers, like the three main players, continued to offer competitive offers to new customers throughout the crisis period”, summarizes the CRE. Conversely, four electricity suppliers (Hydroption, Bulb, E-Pango and Planète Oui), and one gas supplier (Planète Oui, encore), failed between December 2021 and March 2022, their authorizations having been withdrawn or suspended. “Mainly due to judicial liquidation”specifies the administrative authority.
The energy price crisis has above all encouraged the French to stay or return to the regulated electricity sales price, which is set by the public authorities. In other words, EDF’s “blue tariff”. Only the historic operator is authorized to offer it, with a few small local distribution companies. Nearly two thirds of households still subscribe to it. Almost a quarter of households were also subscribed to the regulated gas price, marketed by Engie. Until his disappearance on 1is July. As much as the Council of State has preserved the “blue tariff”, judging electricity « non substituable » et ” first need “as much as he considered that of gas as an obstacle to the competition desired by the European Union.
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