It’s wild that that is even considered progress! Here in Germany it’s completely standard for everyone to have the Electric and Gas Company they choose.

The nitty-gritty of the Anti-Monopoly laws runs under the hood and restricts Energy Companies in all kinds of ways, because just owning the distribution network is a natural Monopoly. The big 4, which are the ones who own it, are literally not allowed to make a profit ( they pay their contractors handsomely every Q4 to get rid of the profits lol). After that, all semi-regional providers get split into companies with maximum sizes and maximum responsibilities. A company that buys from the Energy market cannot be the same company that sells that energy back to consumers, or even be affiliated with a company that does so beyond very superficial levels.

The coolest part (and literally my job lol) is that all actors in the Energy market are barred any communication with each other, except for extremely specific pre-defined messages in specific pre-defined formats. They are designed in a way that makes it impossible to relay information that could lead to illegal market-fixing or anything else that could hurt the consumer. There’s a good dozen of different formats and they get changes twice a year, so staying on top of that alone requires whole companies (because not staying on top of it will get you in deeep shit with the government).

Which lets me get to the point I actually wanted to make: that is a very cool name you have!!! Haha taste the meat not the heat amirite