In Britain, thousands of new connections to the distribution network are made every year. Independent companies have been able to compete with the owners of the grid for some time, but the competitors had limited chance to succeed because the owners are still the sole providers of several key services needed to make new connections.
British energy regulator Ofgem defined new rules for the grid owners that state what the grid owners must do to improve competition. According to the new rules, the grid owner must reduce the number of key services that only he can provide. In case some service can only be provided by the grid owner, the grid owner must provide exactly the same services to the independent company as he provides to his own organizational units involved in making new connections.
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