SSE set to offer wholesale deals to consumers - report

(Reuters) - Scottish and Southern Energy will break ranks with rival utilities companies by offering its electricity for sale to any UK household supplier this week, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. SSE is set to sell electricity they generate directly to consumers and will auction 100 percent of its power on the UK's day-ahead wholesale market as soon as practically possible. The newspaper cited Ian Marchant, chief executive of SSE, as saying he expected "one or two" of his competitors among the big six utilities companies to follow suit by Christmas. Marchant had hoped to begin auctioning all of his electricity as early as Wednesday, but the risk of "swamping the exchange" meant that it would phase in auctioning, starting on Friday, according to the FT article. SSE will buy all the electricity required for its customers from the same source, which may help push down consumers' bills. At present, the big utilities use their own power stations to generate most of the electricity they supply to British homes. In effect, only a relatively small surplus is traded on the wholesale market. SSE aims to auction 25 percent of its electricity by the end of November and 100 percent by early next year. (Reporting by Stephen Mangan)