EDP’s share in the electricity market has been falling for 13 months

  • ECO News
  • 3 April 2019

EDP has maintained its top position holding 81% of the clientele in the free electricity market, but in January its market share dropped again, a trend that started being observed in January 2018.

EDP Comercial is still by far the leader in sales on the electricity free market, but its distance from competitors is decreasing, with the number of clients decreasing continuously. In January, the electricity company headed by António Mexia saw its market share drop for the 13th consecutive month.

According to a brief note on the Liberalized electricity market published this Wednesday by the regulator of the energy sector, ERSE, the number of clients connected to the free market in January stood at 5.11 million people. This value represents a 2.7% net growth in comparison to December 2018, adding 9.5 thousand clients to the liberalized market. Since January last year, the number of clients choosing the liberalized market scheme increased by 2.7% at an average monthly growth rate of 0.2%.

During the first month of the year, 24,208 clients starting being supplied by the liberalized market (6,858 changed from the regulated market, while 17,350 directly entered the free market regime). In contrast, 14,719 clients opted out of that market.

EDP Comercial maintains the leadership position in the electricity market, with 81% of the total of clients from the free market, but according to ERSE, it lost 0.2 percentage points in market share in comparison to December.

Despite keeping a considerable distance from its competitors, EDP Comercial saw Endesa and Iberdrola get a bit closer. The two companies saw their market share go up by 0.1 and 0.2 pp, respectively, to 5.8% and 5.1%.

“All other suppliers more or less maintained the same market share: Galp (5.1%), Goldneregy (1.7%), GN Fenosa (0.6%), PH (0.2%) and all others (1%)”, ERSE explained.

In regards to consumption, Iberdrola (17.1%), Endesa (16.9%), Fortia (3.4%), Acciona (2.1%) and all others (9.6%) saw their free market share increase by 0.1, 0.1, 0.2, 0.2 and 0.5 percentage points, respectively, in January. Galp (7.2%) and GN Fenosa (2.1%) however, registered a reduction, of 0.4 percentage points.