» Consumers can choose utilities possibly from 2016

2014/06/11

The Diet enacted legislation to end the grip regional monopolies have held for 60 years on the household electricity market by opening it up to greater competition.

The move is expected to revolutionize the ¥7.5 trillion market for households and other small consumers in around 2016, as part of a broader shake-up of the country’s power industry.

Households will become able to choose their supplier, shopping around for the best prices or for those offering power from renewable sources.

In the final stage, power companies will spin off power transmission and distribution into separate units starting around 2018 to 2020, so power grids will become more accessible to new entrants. This is expected to lead to fairer competition and will be submitted as a bill during the ordinary Diet session in 2015.
<Media Report>
Households free to choose power supplier (Japan Times)

Tags:japanese government, news, utilities

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