The Government is pushing ahead with new electricity trading arrangements, in search of more equitable results from the wholesale power market and a better deal for consumers, both corporate and individual.

Minister Helen Liddell has set the scene in no uncertain terms at a meeting of industry representatives. "The new market is going to happen, and it will happen quickly," she told them, adding: "It will bring real benefits to consumers through greater competition and lower electricity prices."

Autumn this year has been set as the target for new wholesale trading arrangements to be in place. Implementation measures are contained in the Utilities Bill, now at second-reading stage in the Commons.

The Bill has attracted criticism from conservation groups, however, who are worried that price cuts will encourage more use of energy. The spin-off from that, they say, will be an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and in the extraction of water from rivers and wetlands.

Environmentalists concede that some measures in the Bill would be beneficial, for example, support for using renewable energy sources, but these don't go far enough, they say.

Elliott Chase