LONDON (Reuters) - A record number of British energy customers switched supplier in February, data from industry group Energy UK showed on Monday.
* 668,000 customers switched during the month, the highest monthly switching figure recorded, despite February being the shortest month of the year.
* The data comes as Britain's energy firms are under pressure to reduce bills and as regulator Ofgem prepares to issue a price cap on the most widely used tariffs.
*It also continues last year's trend when a record 5.5 million customers switched in 2017 up from 4.8 million in 2016, Energy UK said.
*The data does not show exactly which companies gained or lost customers but shows almost half the switches were between large suppliers, while almost a quarter of switches were from larger firms to smaller suppliers.
*There are now over 60 energy suppliers in Britain.
*Britain's big six energy suppliers, controlling around 80 percent of the market are Centrica's (L:CNA) British Gas, SSE (L:SSE), E.ON (DE:EONGn), EDF Energy (PA:EDF), Innogy's (DE:IGY) Npower and Iberdrola's (MC:IBE) Scottish Power.