When the UK energy market was privatised in the 1980’s it was envisaged that competition
amongst generators and suppliers would bring benefits for all in the form of reduced utility
bills; However, today the retail energy markets are recognised as dysfunctional with
asymmetric price responses to cost changes (“rocket & feather”), low levels of switching and
customer satisfaction with suppliers and consumer’s trust is at an all-time low. Numerous
incidents, widely reported and recorded by Ofgem, show that energy suppliers cannot be
trusted. The Electron Platform is a radically new technology that capitalises on systems
breakthroughs in the past year in order to offer a secure, open, decentralised blockchain
platform that receives, verifies and stores meter readings (both Smart and manual meters),
tariffs and supplier contracts using smart contract DApps that run without the possibility of
downtime, fraud, or third party tampering and exists outside of the control of individual
energy suppliers. This will create an open transparent market that can be more effectively
overseen by Ofgem and on which multiple services such as billing and switching can be
implemented in a competitive and efficient manner.