Watchdog seeks comments

THE ELECTRICITY regulator Offer yesterday said it was issuing a consultation paper on the regulatory issues involved in the proposed pounds 4.8bn merger of Scottish Hydro-Electric and Southern Electric, and invited comments on the matter by 18 September.

Offer's director-general Stephen Littlechild said he would consider whether the merger could affect the setting of price controls, because the number of independent electricity licensees had been reduced, and if there were any possible implications for competition in the supply and generation of electricity.