The Electricity (Northern Ireland) Order 1992

General duties of licence holders

12.—(1) It shall be the duty of a public electricity supplier to develop and maintain an efficient, co-ordinated and economical system of electricity supply.

(2) It shall be the duty of the holder of a licence authorising him to transmit electricity—

(a) to develop and maintain an efficient, co-ordinated and economical system of electricity transmission; and

(b) subject to paragraph (3), to facilitate competition in the supply and generation of electricity.

(3) Paragraph (2)(b) shall apply in relation to a person who is also the holder of a licence authorising him to supply or generate electricity as if the duty to facilitate competition in the supply or, as the case may be, the generation of electricity were a duty to make his transmission system available to his competitors on terms which neither prevent nor restrict such competition.

(4) For the purposes of paragraph (3) a person’s competitors are any other persons authorised (whether by a licence or exemption) to supply or, as the case may be, generate electricity.