Ofgem, the office of gas and electricity markets, has selected Parity to build a document management system and externally facing website. The first stage of this project is the launch of a new website that will play a key role in helping market participants and consumers find information about gas and electricity regulation, changes and news that could affect them. The new Ofgem website will enable better and quicker access to gas and electricity market information for consumers and businesses. The second phase of the project will be to include a comprehensive internal employee intranet. This will significantly improve electronic document management and records management helping Ofgem to make progress towards achieving cost savings and improving efficiency through being able to more quickly find information and collaborate more effectively. Nick Simpson, Director of Enterprise Content Management at Ofgem explained, “Our first priority is helping to bring choice and value to consumers by improving transparency and clarity in the regulatory environment. As a national watchdog we have a duty to provide stakeholders with the most comprehensive information on gas and electricity markets available and to promote competition in the UK market. We can now publish this content far more efficiently and quickly and everyone can find the information and navigate around the new website far more intuitively.” People accessing the new Ofgem website can search for and retrieve information from approximately 16,000 documents that are constantly updated. Ofgem staff can now publish new content far more efficiently using this new platform which will save them time and reduce costs. Simpson continued, “The new internal intranet will also help our staff to work together more effectively by making it easier to retrieve and share information. Currently there are 1.2 million documents saved in our internal files, our current system makes it very difficult to search for and access these files. In some instances employees have turned to the web site to find a document because they could not locate it on the internal network.” David Conkleton, Managing Director of Parity Business Solutions, says, “This is a good example of how the public sector can work with commercial companies to meet efficiency goals by implementing leading edge technologies. We were also able to deliver training to their staff to get users up to speed from day one, through our training division at Parity.” The content and document management process of the website is underpinned by the use of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 which comprehensively manages how people find and share information across boundaries. The deployment of SharePoint Server 2007 is unique in that Ofgem is one of the first UK Public Sector organisations to implement the software.

ScottishPower today announced energy price cuts for domestic customers and launched one of the cheapest dual fuel products in the UK market. From 15th June gas prices will drop by up to 16.5% and electricity by up to 5.5%. These price decreases will again take ScottishPower’s standard Gas & Electricity Offer below that of British Gas-a market advantage it has enjoyed for almost all of the last five years. The decrease follows the recent launch of ScottishPower’s Price Fall product, which at an average of £811 per year, is one of the cheapest offline deals in the UK. While offering savings today and shielding customers from any potential increases until October 2008, the offer also guarantees to pass on future decreases should standard prices fall below Price Fall rates. The new price structure also means that ScottishPower is now the only UK supplier to support its most vulnerable customers with prepayment rates for both Gas and Electricity that are cheaper than standard quarterly payment rates. ScottishPower is also launching the Savings Challenge encouraging existing customers to ensure that they are on the company’s best deal. Over 80% of ScottishPower customers could pay less by making simple changes to their energy account - eg switching to Direct Debit could save up to £125 and managing accounts online up to a further £64.  Willie MacDiarmid, ScottishPower’s Director of Energy Retail, said: “Between 2003 and 2006 wholesale energy costs rose by over 200% and we have protected our customers from a substantial part of this increase. Now that costs are starting to subside we are delighted to offer our customers one of the cheapest energy products in the market. We can also assure our customers that we are committed to giving them value for money in the longer term and will continue to review our pricing structures”.

Fresh calls for a competition inquiry into Britain’s energy market were made today as watchdogs slammed a “cynical” price cut from French-run supplier EDF Energy. Just days after being named and shamed by industry regulator Ofgem, EDF last night announced it would be bringing gas prices down by 10.2 per cent. But the group is refusing to implement the cut until the middle of the summer June 15th and stunned industry experts by saying it will be leaving electricity prices unchanged. The majority of its five and a half million customers only take electricity. A spokesman added: “We believe this is a good, competitive offer that our customers will be pleased with.”  EDF’s average annual dual-fuel bill will drop by £63 to £908, making it one of the cheapest on the market. But the move was immediately attacked by pressure groups, who claimed average bills for homeowners across the UK should be closer to £750. Wholesale prices have fallen by 50 per cent since last summer. British Gas has already cut prices two times and reductions from npower and Powergen in February take effect today. Karen Darby, head of Simply Switch.com, said EDF’s move was a “kick in the teeth” for its customers. She said: “After weeks of waiting EDF announces a price cut during an April heatwave and its customers will not see the benefit until the height of the summer.  “It’s cynical at best and frankly I’m amazed.” Adam Scorer, campaigns director for Energywatch, urged the Competition Commission to investigate the market.  He told The Times: “EDF Energy is doing the minimum you would expect to keep them in the pack.  “None of the these companies are going out on a limb to attract customers or give them a really good deal.  “There is no one here like a Tesco or a Ryanair who’s saying ‘I’m going to lead the market’. They are too comfortable, too cosy and it’s just not good enough.”  Originally, 14 regional electricity supply companies were privatised in the early 1990s along with British Gas. A consolidation spree has seen this number shrink into a Big Six. EDF’s move leaves only Scottish Power, owned by Spanish power giant Iberdrola, as the sole supplier yet to pass savings onto its customers. The EDF spokesman insisted the company was not short-changing customers as it had implemented the lowest price increases last year when bills soared across the industry. He added June 15 was the soonest EDF could implement its planned reductions. “This is good news,” he said.

EDF Energy has become the latest energy supplier to announce a price cut, saying it will reduce its gas bills by more than 10%. It said the move, which comes into effect on 15th June, will cut the average bill of those customers who buy both gas and electricity by £63 a year. But the French-owned firm said it would not be reducing its electricity prices. Last week, energy watchdog Ofgem publicly urged EDF customers to switch supplier in order to save money. Ofgem said EDF and Scottish Power had failed to pass on this year’s reduction in wholesale prices. EDF’s announcement means that Scottish Power is now the only firm among the “big six” UK energy suppliers not to have cut prices since British Gas first reduced its bills in February. EDF - which has 5.5 million UK customers - said it would not be reducing its electricity prices because its electricity bills saw the smallest price rises compared with competitors last year. British Gas announced a further price cut last week, reducing its electricity bills by an additional 6%, and gas by 3%, with immediate effect. The UK’s other main electricity and gas suppliers are Npower, Powergen, and Scottish & Southern Energy.

Gaz de France, which has its UK headquarters in Leeds, is participating in an 18-month test as part of an EU research programme to see whether electricity produced by businesses or local authorities with small generators or wind turbines, and aggregated by energy suppliers, can be sold to the National Grid or to the market. Apart from the UK test, three other projects supported by the EU are underway in France, Spain and Greece.