Ofgem made the appointment last week after growing concern that the Big Six may be attempting to appear less profitable in their retail divisions as they look to justify higher prices. The new investigation by BDO will investigate the hedging practices, trading profits and wholesale prices paid by the companies.

In March, Ofgem published a review of the retail market and later queried the transparency of five of Britain’s biggest utility companies – Scottish and Southern, Scottish Power, RWE npower, EDF and E.ON – in financial information provided to the regulator.

For their accounts submitted to Ofgem for 2009, the regulator believes these companies may have included £800m of profits from their supply and generation businesses under a variety of other headings in their accounts – mostly as exceptional items.

The utility companies have all strongly denied any suggestions of opacity in their reporting, saying they gave a “true and fair representation of retail margins”. Subsequent accounts for 2010 have more clearly divided all profits into either generation or......---> Read more HERE Ofgem to investigate energy giants profits - Telegraph

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