Switching energy providers a growing trend in Belgium

Belgian green energy retailer Lampiris doubled its market share last year as customers deserted market leader Electrabel, highlighting the impact of government encouragement for switching, reports EurActiv. For Lampiris's co-founder and chairman Bruno Vanderschueren, its growth is testimony to its environmental credentials as well as the ability of customers to easily switch accounts in a relatively liberalised market. "People come to us because we are one of the cheapest suppliers and our power is green," he said, adding that the fact that Lampiris is the only locally-owned energy retailer also helps. The EU's liberalisation of energy markets in 2007 was meant to make it easier for utility customers to switch supplier. Results have been most marked in liberalised markets, such as Belgium, Britain and Sweden, where rates range from 10 to 15% of residential customers per year. In Belgium, the energy market is dominated by foreign companies, so authorities – free from bias for national players – have embraced competition to lower prices, even providing official price comparisons between suppliers. Customers are therefore leaving once-dominant Electrabel, a unit of French utility GDF Suez, in droves, forcing it to lower prices. Last year, Electrabel's market share fell to 57.2%, from 66.4% in 2011, while competitors like Italy's Eni and Essent Belgium, owned by Germany's RWE, gained ground. Lampiris, Belgium's only independent energy retailer, has grabbed 3.5% of the market by volume of electricity sold, but 8.5% in terms of number of households served, since it does not sell power to corporate clients.