Nichola, it doesn't matter to the UK customer. The French company EDF is not selling French energy to the UK. It doesn't matter whose gas or electricity you seem to be buying; it is all exactly the same gas and electricity - otherwise you would need different pipes and cables for you and your neighbours! All the different energy companies (retailers) are doing is applying different administration rates to charging you for it, combined with different skill in buying it from the energy producers (wholesalers) at high or low prices.
What the big, fat, inefficient energy companies are hoping (and, yes, I am thinking about British Gas) is that most customers are too trusting, timid, lazy or uniformed about how easy it is, to bother changing their provider. For years I was one of these people who never changed my bank nor my insurance company as well as my fuel supplier. When I finally realized that companies offer no prizes for loyalty - they just take increasing advantage of you, I started questioning everything and saved £100s. Oh, well - better late than never.
