Electricity market rigging claim

Centrica participates actively in the UK wholesale gas market in order to meet our commitments to our customers.

We trade in the wholesale gas market every day. In this respect, 28 September 2012 was no different.

We have reviewed all our trades executed around the close of the market on that day and have found nothing unusual about them or any cause for concern.

These fresh allegations suggest that price fixing could be happening in the electricity market, as well as the gas market, which is deeply worrying and must be investigated as fully and rapidly as possible.

Whatever the outcome of these investigations, it is increasingly clear that there are deep structural problems with the way our energy market works and is regulated.

For too long, these energy companies have been allowed to get away with running their businesses in such a complicated way that it is almost impossible for anyone to know what the true cost of energy is.

These allegations show why it is more important than ever to create a tough new regulator the public can trust and to force the gas and electricity companies to sell the energy they generate into a pool, to open up the market and ensure fairer consumer prices.

We were not involved in any of the trades which we understand are under investigation.

We confirm that we have robust compliance procedures in place – it is an explicit commitment within RWE’s Code of Conduct that we will comply with all laws and regulations.

Every trade that we make and every transactional conversation is recorded. We comply with all European transparency regulations.

Customers need to trust suppliers and be able to trust the energy markets. RWE is engaged in action to support transparency and liquididity in the markets.

We need transparent markets to encourage the investment the UK needs.We would be happy to support any regulatory investigation.

We are entirely confident that our Energy Portfolio Management team operate in a fair and legitimate way.

Price-fixing claims like these highlight the urgent need to overhaul our energy system to make it clearer, fairer and cleaner.

Friends of the Earth raised concerns over our broken energy market a year ago and called for a public inquiry, which the Government turned down. We're reiterating that call today.

Britain's heavy reliance on imported gas for our electricity is driving up fuel bills - and the Chancellor's reckless dash for gas will make matters worse.

With the Energy Bill expected next week, ministers must seize the chance to end the nation's gas dependency and open up the market to a wider range of smaller firms generating affordable and clean British energy.