英国近四分之三的家庭目前仅由三家能源供应商提供服务，此前E.ON Next在与Ovo Energy达成收购协议后，能源市场竞争问题再次引发担忧。
Almost three-quarters of households in Great Britain are now served by just three energy suppliers, after E.ON Next completed a deal to buy Ovo Energy despite fresh concerns about competition in the energy market.
周四，在英国竞争监管机构批准该交易后，此次收购最终完成。尽管有人担心家庭能源供应商数量减少，可能导致消费者选择更少，供应商降低账单的激励也减弱。
The takeover concluded on Thursday after Britain’s competition watchdog cleared it, despite concerns that the shrinking number of household energy suppliers could mean billpayers will have less choice and suppliers will have less incentive to lower bills.
虽然Ovo的400万客户短期内不会受到影响，但此次收购意味着E.ON Next——其已为560万户家庭供能——将占据家庭能源市场的25%，成为英国第二大能源供应商。
While there will be no immediate change for Ovo’s 4 million customers, the sale means that E.ON Next, which already supplies 5.6m households, will hold 25% of the household energy market and become Great Britain’s second-largest energy supplier.
这使得该公司的市场份额略低于占据26%份额的Octopus Energy，但高于传统能源巨头British Gas。后者曾是最大的供应商，如今仅覆盖约23%的家庭。
This puts the supplier’s hold on the market narrowly behind Octopus Energy, which holds a 26% share, and ahead of legacy energy incumbent British Gas, which was once the top supplier but today serves about 23% of households.
此举也打击了过去十年旨在打破“六大”能源供应商垄断地位、以增强竞争和降低能源价格的努力。
It also deals a blow to the decade-long efforts to dismantle the dominance of what were the “Big Six” energy suppliers to increase competition and lower energy prices.
领先咨询公司Cornwall Insight的能源供应主管Tom Goswell表示：“‘六大’已经变成了‘三大’，人们开始担忧这将如何影响家庭的选择权以及市场的健康。”E.ON UK首席执行官Chris Norbury则驳斥了这些担忧，他将市场形容为“竞争异常激烈”，并表示公司的“灵活性和规模”将使其能够“在当前满足客户需求，并为未来的能源系统实现转型”。
Tom Goswell, the energy supply lead at Cornwall Insight, a leading consultancy, said: “The big six have become the big three, and there have been questions raised over how this will impact household choice and the health of the market.”Those concerns were rebuffed by Chris Norbury, chief executive of E.ON UK, who described the market as “fiercely competitive” and said the company’s “flexibility and scale” would allow it to “deliver for customers now and to transform for the energy system to come”.
传统的“六大”供应商——British Gas、EDF Energy、E.ON UK、SSE、Scottish Power和npower——曾在2016年占据约85%的能源市场。当时，英国竞争与市场管理局（CMA）的一项里程碑式调查警告称，由于市场竞争乏力，消费者每年多支付的费用约为14亿至17亿英镑。
The legacy big six suppliers – British Gas, EDF Energy, E.ON UK, SSE, Scottish Power and npower – dominated about 85% of the energy market in 2016 when a landmark investigation by the CMA warned that customers were overpaying by roughly £1.4bn to £1.7bn every year due to weak market competition.
由于E.ON这笔交易，包括EDF Energy和Scottish Power在内的五大供应商，将占据英国约90%的家用能源供应市场。
As a result of the E.ON deal, about 90% of Great Britain’s household energy supply market will be held by only five suppliers when including EDF Energy and Scottish Power alongside the big three.
尽管2016年后涌现出大量新能源初创企业，以Octopus、Ovo和Bulb Energy为代表，但自2019年SSE将其家用能源供应业务出售给Ovo后，市场开始萎缩。在2021/22年的能源危机期间，数十家供应商相继破产。
Although there was a surge in new energy start-ups after 2016 – led by Octopus, Ovo and Bulb Energy – the market began to shrink after SSE sold its household supply business to Ovo in 2019, and dozens of suppliers went bust during the 2021/22 energy crisis.
Octopus从Bulb手中接过了150万客户，成为市场上最大的供应商。而Bulb则在2022年进入破产管理程序，成为此次危机中最大的受害者。
Octopus became the biggest supplier in the market after taking on 1.5 million customers from Bulb, which became the biggest casualty when it went into administration in 2022.
Goswell表示：“规模较大的供应商确实能带来一定程度的稳定。在大约30家公司退出市场后，客户开始担心下一张账单会由谁来寄送，因此稳定并非可以轻易忽视的事情。”
“Larger suppliers do bring with them a degree of stability, and after about 30 firms dropped out of the market, leaving customers wondering who would be sending their next bill, stability is not something to dismiss lightly,” Goswell said.
他补充道：“供应商数量减少的担忧在于，竞争压力会随之减弱，从而削弱了维持低价和提供差异化服务的动力。大型供应商拥有资源，能够真正为消费者提供选择。未来几年的关键，在于那些主动比较市场的家庭，能否发现真正多样化的优惠方案，而不是三种几乎一模一样的产品。”
“The concern with fewer suppliers is that the pressure to compete eases off, taking with it some of the incentive to keep prices low and offer something different. The big suppliers have the resources to give people real choice, and the test over the next few years will be whether households who shop around find a genuine range of deals waiting for them rather than three versions of the same thing,” he added.