Tea Time Robbery: The Readout With Allegra Stratton

Today an extraordinary exposé by a team of Bloomberg specialists shows the UK’s biggest energy firms are gaming the system, making money out of bill payers, and highlighting that the time has come for stronger regulation.

“Traders at firms including Vitol’s VPI, Uniper and SSE have frequently announced they would cut off electricity capacity — sometimes with just a few hour s’ notice — ahead of the busiest evening periods. At the same time, they offered power from their plants in a special side market where they charged higher prices to meet the shortfalls they helped create.”