EDF Energy is a British integrated energy company, wholly owned by the French state-owned

EDF EDF may refer to: Organisations * Eclaireurs de France, a French Scouting association * Education for Development Foundation, a Thai charity * Électricité de France, a French energy company ** EDF Energy, their British subsidiary ** EDF Luminus, ...

(Électricité de France), with operations spanning

electricity generation Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery ( transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its stor ...

and the sale of

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon ...

and

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...

to homes and businesses throughout the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It employs 11,717 people, and handles 5.22 million business and residential customer accounts.

History

EDF Energy Customers (trading as EDF) is wholly owned by the French state owned

() and was formed in January 2002, following the acquisition and mergers of Seeboard plc (formerly the South Eastern Electricity Board), London Electricity plc (formerly the

London Electricity Board The London Electricity Board was the public sector utility company responsible for the supply and distribution of electricity to domestic, commercial and industrial consumers in London prior to 1990. It also sold and made available for hire and ...

or LEB),

SWEB Energy SWEB Energy, formerly South Western Electricity Board (SWEB) was a British state-owned regional electricity company operating in South West England which was privatised by the Thatcher government. Although sold many times, the 'SWEB' brand ...

plc (formerly the South Western Electricity Board) and two coal fired

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...

s and a

combined cycle A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas tu ...

gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...

power station. In 2009, EDF took control of the

nuclear Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: *Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics *Nuclear space * Nuclear ...

generator in the United Kingdom,

British Energy British Energy was the UK's largest electricity generation company by volume, before being taken over by Électricité de France (EDF) in 2009. British Energy operated eight former UK state-owned nuclear power stations and one coal-fired power ...

, buying share capital from the government. This made EDF one of the largest generators in the United Kingdom. The development branch of EDF was formed in April 2004, bringing together the separate infrastructure interests of what were LE Group, Seeboard and SWEB. The focus for the branch is development activity through the participation in major new infrastructure projects, largely in the public sector through public-private partnership (PPP) and

private finance initiative The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating " public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 1 ...

(PFI) type schemes. The electricity distribution (or downstream) networks formerly known as EDF Energy Networks were sold in November, 2010 to Hong Kong-based

Cheung Kong Group Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, is a multinational conglomerate, based in Hong Kong. It was one of Hong Kong's leading multi-national conglomerates. The company merged with its subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa on 3 June 2015, as part of a majo ...

(CKG), owned by billionaire

Li Ka Shing Sir Ka-shing Li (; born 13 June 1928) is a Hong Kong billionaire business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. As of June 2019, Li is the 31st richest person in the world, with an estimated net wealth of US$33.4 billion. He is the senior ad ...

. Later, EDF Energy Networks was renamed to

UK Power Networks UK Power Networks is a distribution network operator for electricity covering South East England, the East of England and London. It manages three licensed distribution networks (Eastern Power Networks, South Eastern Power Networks and London Powe ...

. In December 2014, EDF sold three small UK based wind farms with a combined capacity of 73

megawatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...

to the

China General Nuclear Power Group China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) (), formerly China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group (), is a Chinese state-owned energy corporation under the SASAC of the State Council. In China, CGN operates nuclear plants at Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant, ...

for an estimated £100million. In November 2017, EDF sold its majority stake in five wind farms across Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire for £98million. A release from EDF confirmed that in 2018 the firm lost 200,000 consumers due to them shopping around a competitive marketplace. EDF also found that earnings for its UK business had tumbled by 16.5% to £691million in the year to 31 December. On 4 November 2019 EDF announced the acquisition British start up Pivot Power, who specialise in battery storage and infrastructure for electric vehicle charging. EDF acquired a majority stake in Pod Point, one of the largest electric vehicle (EV) charging companies in the UK, in February 2020. On 31 August 2021, EDF announced the sales of its 1332 MW combined cycle gas turbine power station and 49MW battery at West Burton B to EIG. The UK's nuclear stations, run by EDF, reached a milestone in November 2021, clocking up 2000 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity – enough to power all the UK's homes for more than 18 years.

''No Dash For Gas'' action

In February 2013, EDF sought an estimated £5million in damages from environmental activists from the ''No Dash for Gas'' campaign, who occupied the EDF owned West Burton CCGT power station in October 2012, and pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated trespass. It is unusual in the United Kingdom for companies to seek damages from protesters. Environmentalist

George Monbiot George Joshua Richard Monbiot ( ; born 27 January 1963) is a British writer known for his environmental and political activism. He writes a regular column for ''The Guardian'' and is the author of a number of books. Monbiot grew up in Oxford ...

, writing in ''The Guardian'', said EDF was conducting a

strategic lawsuit against public participation Strategic lawsuits against public participation (also known as SLAPP suits or intimidation lawsuits), or strategic litigation against public participation, are lawsuits intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with ...

, "part of a global strategy by corporations to stifle democracy", and predicted the "disastrous

unintended consequences In the social sciences, unintended consequences (sometimes unanticipated consequences or unforeseen consequences) are outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen. The term was popularised in the twentieth century by Ameri ...

of an attempt at censorship" could result in the

Streisand effect Attempts to hide, remove, or censor information often have the unintended consequence of increasing awareness of that information via the Internet. This is called the Streisand effect. It is named after American singer and actress Barbra Streis ...

and be comparable to the McLibel case. The activists received support in the days since the case became public, with over 6,000 signatures on a supportive petition at

Change.org Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...

within the first day, and over 64,000 by the time EDF dropped their lawsuit on 13 March 2013, saying that this was "a fair and reasonable solution" after the protesters had "agreed in principle to accept a permanent injunction which prevents them from entering multiple sites operated by EDF Energy".

Electricity generation

Nuclear

Following the acquisition of

in 2009, the EDF portfolio includes eight

nuclear power stations A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a generator that produces ele ...

. They are seven AGR power stations (

Dungeness B The Dungeness nuclear power stations are a pair of non-operational nuclear power stations located on the Dungeness headland in the south of Kent, England. Dungeness A is a legacy Magnox power station consisting of two 250MWe reactors which we ...

;

Hinkley Point B Hinkley Point B nuclear power station is a nuclear power station near Bridgwater, Somerset, on the Bristol Channel coast of south west England. It was the first commercial Advanced Gas Cooled reactor to generate power to the National Grid in ...

; Hunterston B;

Hartlepool Hartlepool () is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Hartlepool. With an estimated population of 90,123, it is the second-largest settlement in County ...

; Heysham 1; Heysham 2 and

Torness Torness nuclear power station is a nuclear power station located approximately east of Edinburgh at Torness Point near Dunbar in East Lothian, Scotland. It was the last of the United Kingdom's second generation nuclear power plants to be commi ...

) and one PWR power station (

Sizewell B The Sizewell nuclear site consists of two nuclear power stations, one of which is still operational, located near the small fishing village of Sizewell in Suffolk, England. Sizewell A, with two Magnox reactors, is now in the process of being dec ...

), totalling nearly 9,000MW of installed capacity. In 2007, EDF announced its intention to construct up to four new EPR design reactors; two at

Hinkley Point C Hinkley Point C nuclear power station (HPC) is a two-unit, 3,200MWe EPR nuclear power station under construction in Somerset, England. The site was one of eight announced by the British government in 2010, and in November 2012 a nuclear site ...

(currently scheduled to start operation in 2025), two at

Sizewell C Sizewell C nuclear power station is a project to construct a 3,200MWe nuclear power station with two EPR reactors in Suffolk, England. The project was proposed by a consortium of EDF Energy and China General Nuclear Power Group, which own 80% ...

and Bradwell B. EDF plans to build and operate the new plants through its subsidiary

NNB Generation Company Nuclear New Build Generation Company (NNB GenCo) is a subsidiary created by EDF Energy to build and then operate two new nuclear power stations in the United Kingdom. The new plants are to be Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C and will eventually produ ...

(NNB GenCo). In August 2014, the company announced it had shut down four of its 15 reactors for a period of eight weeks to investigate potential cracking in the boiler spine. In 2015, EDF announced a 10-year life extension for Dungeness B, initially pushing back the closure date until 2028, although it subsequently ceased production and commenced defuelling in June 2021. In February 2016, EDF announced that it would keep four of its nuclear plants open in the United Kingdom. Heysham 1 and Hartlepool will have their life extended by five years until 2024, while Heysham 2 and Torness will see their closure dates pushed back by seven years to 2030. In November 2020 EDF announced Hinkley Point B power station in Somerset will move into the defuelling phase no later than 15 July 2022.

Wind

As of 2021, EDF owns and operates 37

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind tur ...

s including the 59 turbine onshore wind farm at Dorenell in Scotland, and are developing two offshore wind projects at Codling Wind Park in Ireland and

Neart na Gaoithe Neart Na Gaoithe ("strength of the wind" in Gaelic, ) is an offshore wind farm under construction in the outer Firth of Forth, north of Torness. It has a potential capacity of 450 MW. It is being developed by EDF Renewables and ESB. Offshore wor ...

in Scotland. The company have plans for a floating offshore wind development at Blyth and a 22 turbine onshore wind farm Garn Fach in Wales.

Solar energy

EDF develop, operate and maintain solar projects. Sutton Bridge is the company's first solar farm of grid-scale and will be approximately 139 hectares. In 2019 EDF signed an agreement to install solar panels on the roofs of a number of Tesco's largest stores in England.

Fossil fuel

EDF owned and operated one 2,000MW coal fired power station, West Burton A Power Station, located near

Retford Retford (), also known as East Retford, is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England, and one of the oldest English market towns having been granted its first charter in 1105. It lies on the River Idle and the Chesterfie ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

. Generation at West Burton A power station ended on the 31 March 2023.

Energy percentages

In the period from April 2020 to March 2021, the percentage of electricity generated by EDF from each source was as follows: nuclear - 62.1%, renewable - 29%, gas - 7.5%, coal - 1.3% with average intensity of 42 geq/kWh. In 2020, EDF nuclear power plants provided 16.1% of UK total electricity generation, down from 17.3% in 2019. As of 2020 EDF supplied 32.4% of

low-carbon energy Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Most definitions of sustainable energy include considerations of environmental aspects such as greenho ...

in the whole UK energy mix.

EDF Renewables

EDF Renewables in the UK is a joint venture between EDF Renewables Group and EDF. In April 2017, EDF Renewable Energy, in a joint venture with EDF, announced the commissioning of the Corriemoillie (47.5MW), Beck Burn (31MW) and Pearie Law (19.2MW) wind farms. Beck Burn was opened in July that year. Also in July 2017, EDF Renewables announced the acquisition of 11 Scottish wind farm sites from asset manager Partnerships for Renewables, with a potential capacity of 600MW. In May 2018, EDF Energies Nouvelles bought the Neart na Gaoithe wind farm in Scotland from Irish company Mainstream Renewable Power, following a competitive process. It will produce 450MW. The farm is planned to go online in 2023. EDF Renewables opened its wind farm in Blyth in July 2018, where the individual turbines are connected via 66-kilometre (41 mi) offshore cables to bring the electricity produced onshore.

Sponsorship

EDF is the "in Association" sponsor of

Cheltenham Science Festival Cheltenham Science Festival is one of the UK's leading science festivals, and is part of Cheltenham Festivals: also responsible for the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Jazz, Cheltenham Music Festival, Music and Cheltenham Literature Festival, Literatu ...

and have been supporters of the

Big Bang Fair The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair, founded 2009, is the United Kingdom’s largest celebration of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) for young people, and is one of the largest youth events in the UK. The fair t ...

since 2015. EDF has sponsored several shows on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Island ...

, including ''

Soapstar Superstar ''Soapstar Superstar'' is a British talent show that aired on ITV from 6 January 2006 to 13 January 2007. The show's format works in a similar format to that of ''Pop Idol'' and ''The X Factor'', in that the competition features a group of soa ...

'' and ''City Lights''. It also sponsored coverage of the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

in Germany (shared with

Budweiser Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, part of AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States. ''Budweiser'' may also refer to an unre ...

) and coverage of the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to ...

(shared with

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...

) EDF was the main sponsor of the

Anglo-Welsh Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English club ...

– the

Rugby Union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

domestic cup for the twelve clubs in the English Premiership and the four Welsh regions – between 2006 and 2009. In July 2007, EDF was confirmed as another Level One sponsor for

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

with exclusive branding rights and Olympic team sponsorship for the 2008, 2010 and 2012 games as well as being the official energy provider. In August 2008, EDF formed a partnership with The

British Red Cross The British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom body of the worldwide neutral and impartial humanitarian network the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with more ...

to help vulnerable people to get support during power failures. In January 2011, EDF took over sponsorship from

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

of the

London Eye The London Eye, or the Millennium Wheel, is a cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames in London. It is Europe's tallest cantilevered observation wheel, and is the most popular paid tourist attraction in the Unite ...

, on a three-year deal renaming the London Eye as the EDF Energy London Eye.

Marketing

On 4 January 2008, EDF began advertising on the television through ITV,

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

, Channel 5 and various satellite channels. EDF are using "It's not easy being green" as their slogan to target a new greener eco friendly image. In 2009, with

Euro RSCG London Havas London (formerly known as Euro RSCG London) is a London-based integrated advertising agency. It is part of the Havas Worldwide network (formerly known as Euro RSCG Worldwide) network which has 316 offices located in 75 countries throughout ...

, EDF created the Team Green Britain campaign, in which Olympic athletes encouraged Britons to be more environmentally aware. On 2 April 2012, EDF launched an advert, including their new mascot, Zingy. In 2020 EDF launched their new brand purpose focused on tackling climate change and aired a TV advertising campaign promoting their new company ambition and purpose "Helping Britain achieve Net Zero".

Distribution network operators

EDF Energy Networks was founded as a merger of

Distribution Network Operators A distribution network operator (DNO), also known as a distribution system operator (DSO), is the operator of the electric power distribution system which delivers electricity to most end users. Each country may have many local distribution netwo ...

but has since divested from this area of work in November, 2010 to Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Group (CKG), owned by billionaire Li Ka Shing. The DSO of EDF Energy Networks was renamed to UK Power Networks. EDG is now an energy generator and supplier.

EDF's main locations

EDF's main offices are located in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extens ...

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal c ...

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th ce ...

and

Barnwood Barnwood is an eastern suburb of Gloucester, lying about from the centre of the city, and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Gloucester, in the Gloucester district, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Barnwood was origin ...

in Gloucester.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Edf Energy British subsidiaries of foreign companies Utilities of the United Kingdom Electric power companies of the United Kingdom Nuclear power companies of the United Kingdom Energy in England Companies based in London Energy companies established in 2002 Non-renewable resource companies established in 2002 2002 establishments in the United Kingdom Électricité de France