Dorad Energy Ltd., Israel's second largest private energy producer, is seeking to break into the consumer private household electricity market. The company's chairman Erez Halfon is set to meet with Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources Yuval Steinitz to gain approval for a pilot project to supply 15,000 homes in the Negev with electricity at rates 5-7% lower than Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22).
At present, Israel's private electricity producers are only licensed to provide electricity to commercial and industrial customers, while IEC maintains a monopoly in the household sector. For the pilot project to be implemented, Dorad's license would have to be changed and the company would need to receive permission to install meters in the homes being supplied.
If approved, Dorad would conduct the pilot over 12 months and if successful expand the project to encompass 400,000 homes.
Halfon said that Dorad had been in talks with the Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources on this matters for the past year. He said, "We are talking about an historic step. This would be the first time since the establishment of the State that a private company would sell electricity to households. We want to make this breakthrough and let every person choose who their electricity provider will be. There is no reason why the discount that we are giving should be available only to commercial and industrial customers and not all Israelis. Now that the electricity reform is agreed I believe that the minister and regulator will move this forward."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 8, 2018
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