Record number of UK energy customers switched supplier in Feb

LONDON, March 12 (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 (Frankfurt: A0DK6K - news) 's British Gas, SSE (Amsterdam: UW8.AS - news) , E.ON, EDF Energy, Innogy's Npower and Iberdrola (Amsterdam: ID6.AS - news) 's Scottish Power. (Reporting By Susanna Twidale, editing by David Evans)