But then Ed Miliband broke the political consensus with his promise at last September's Labour party conference to freeze prices, break up the big six and scrap Ofgem.
At last September's Labour party conference, then-party leader Ed Miliband said a Labour government would freeze prices, break up the big six energy suppliers and scrap Ofgem.
British Gas and other members of the big six have repeatedly warned that the lights could go out – most vociferously when Ed Miliband told the party annual conference last autumn that an incoming Labour government would force companies to freeze prices, break up the big six and dismantle the regulator.
The state, figuring that the presence of more competitors would lead to lower prices, broke up local monopolies and invited companies from all over to try to sell their power to householdsand businesses.
An OPEC meeting at the end of November, which discussed cutting oil production to halt the slide in oil prices, broke up without agreement.
But a price freeze and break up will cause great uncertainty, worrying new potential investors and possibly damaging new smaller entrants to retail.
Rick Haythornthwaite, Centrica's new chairman, said last week the threats to impose price caps or break up Britain's biggest energy supplier were raising the real possibility of "the lights going out in Britain".
For that sort of price break, this may shape up like the battle between the wonderful $600 iPad and the good-enough $200 Kindle".
However, Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, dismissed the claims of the Big Six energy companies as excuses and said he would take action against those that are "overcharging people and taking advantage of a broken market" by freezing prices and breaking up the firms if he wins power in 2015.
It was also buying direct from growers, helping to break up unfair industry price controls, and offering low-interest loans as an alternative to those from predatory lenders.
