What effects has energy market liberalisation had for the consumers - have prices merely gone up ever since? A look at the situation in Belgium.

Reporter: Energy - can you choose to pay less?

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/16304340/m003-0253-en.srt

The cost of energy is constantly rising.

Has liberalisation brought  price reductions?

19° is the ambient temperature  in the living room of the Desmettes

and also in the kitchen  and the rest of the home.

This comfort has a cost  for this Brussels household of four.

The gas and electricity bill is the third  item of expenditure after rent and food.

In 2012, we paid 2,500 euros  for gas and electricity over the year.

Since the beginning of 2013,  the monthly bill is 246 euros.

In a ranking of EU countries  with the most expensive energy,

Since the liberalisation of the market  in 2007,

That represents 450 euros extra on  the annual bill of an average household.

Liberalisation hasn't produced  its anticipated result,

a reduction in prices thanks to  competition between market players.

that consumers have paid  at least as much under liberalisation

There are many reasons  for these high prices.

First, gas prices until 2012  were linked to those of oil

Next, public investment in photovoltaics  is passed on to customer bills.

Finally, fear of change.  Belgian consumers

have shopped around very little  between energy suppliers.

But in the last two years  the situation has changed

as consumers are comparing prices and  are now ready to change their supplier.

It's 3,500 kilowatt hours per year  of electricity,

and if you're using gas heating  23,000 kilowatt hours of gas per year.

Potential savings can be 300-400 euros  per year simply by changing supplier.

And Nicolas Herinckx has made a  profession of that as an energy broker.

The first phase of our mission is  to carry out an energy survey.

We go and determine  all the supply points of our client

and we see if improvements  are possible or not.

In 90% of cases,  tariff improvements are possible.

I've come to sum up the savings reports,

so we can see what we've done  since the beginning of November.

From November 2012 to February  we've saved

3,600 euros for the co-owners  in four months.

So we can estimate the savings  over the year,

even though these are the coldest  months, at 5,000-5,500 euros,

which is 10-15% over a complete year,  10-15% on energy bills.

In this building we have two  high-output gas condensing boilers.

They heat about 70 apartments and  produce hot water for the whole building.

The advantage is very clear  for our clients, the co-owners.

With this partnership, they're getting  preferential rates for their gas supply.

In this case, liberalisation has worked.

Since 2012,  the actual energy share of a bill

The rest is transport costs, various taxes,

and particularly distribution,  which has not been liberalised.

We're sorry to see that since 2008  distribution tariffs have risen.

It can be explained by the fact that  distributors are retained by municipalities.

And in municipalities we see connections

with the decision-makers who adopt  regional and federal laws and regulations.

It's a disguised tax,  according to this MEP.

Every country tries to use this vehicle,  which is the energy bill,

but some indirect tarification,  which is wrong.

They haven't all correctly transposed  the EU laws yet,

which impose a separation between  energy production and energy supply