EDF Energy

EDF Energy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the French state-owned EDF Group (Electricité de France), which is one of Europe’s largest energy companies. 

EDF says it’s the UK’s biggest producer of low-carbon electricity, which it delivers to around 3.5 million homes.

Around 62% of EDF’s electricity comes from nuclear power and it owns eight nuclear power stations, as well as one coal and one gas power station and 36 wind farms.

EDF Energy says it plans to ‘be the efficient, responsible electricity company and champion of low-carbon growth’.

None of its tariffs come with 100% renewable electricity and some of its cheapest deals provide online customer service only.

EDF Energy took on customers of Green Network Energy, Zog, iSupply Energy and Utility Point when the smaller firms stopped trading. 

It’s also leasing electric vehicles to customers as well as selling smart home technology (including light bulbs, motion sensors and heating controls) and boiler insurance.

Find out if EDF Energy offers the cheapest energy deal for your home. Use Which? Switch to compare energy prices.

EDF customer review

EDF Energy is ranked 10th out of 16 energy companies rated by 8,390 members of the public in the annual Which? customer survey.

Of the other big energy companies, Ovo appears a fair bit higher in our table – in joint-second spot. British Gas ranks above EDF Energy in eighth place. Eon, SSE and Scottish Power rank just below it. 

EDF score 

The table below shows the breakdown of EDF's score from our latest survey.

Scroll down to find out how fast EDF answers the phone to customers, how its complaints handling compares with other suppliers and how its electricity fuel mix compares with competitors.

Based on a survey in September 2021 of 845 EDF customers.

Find out how EDF compares with other energy companies – see the full results of the best and worst energy companies.

Which? verdict on EDF

Pros: Good if you want low-carbon nuclear power

Cons: Customers don’t consider it good value; fairly slow to pick up the phone

EDF's bill accuracy and clarity

EDF Energy’s customers gave its bill accuracy and bill clarity a fair rating with three out of five stars.

Only one firm in our survey scored higher for bill accuracy, while a further three scored four stars for bill clarity. 

EDF's customer service and value for money 

Unfortunately customers were not positive about EDF's customer service and value for money, for which it achieved a poor two-star rating. On these two measures it ranks the same as competitors British Gas, SSE and EON. In fact, British Gas scored identically on all aspects we asked customers about.

Scottish Power also scored two stars for value for money but only one star for customer service. The highest-scoring provider managed four stars.

Around six in 10 (58%) of EDF customers told us its customer service was good and almost two-thirds (63%) shared that they were satisfied with it as their supplier overall.

EDF Energy are not usually among the cheapest on the market. Its out-of-contract tariff costs the maximum permitted under Ofgem's price cap, which limits how much energy suppliers can charge per unit of gas or electricity.

EDF's complaints

Just over one in 10 (11%) of EDF customers told us they had reason to complain in the year to October 2021. Four in 10 of those who did launch a complaint with EDF did so about their bills or statements and a quarter complained about payments.

Can you join EDF Energy with a prepayment meter?

Yes, EDF Energy accepts customers with both standard and smart pay-as-you-go meters.

EDF customers can top-up standard prepayment meters at post offices, PayPoint and Payzone outlets. Smart meter customers can top-up remotely, set automatic top-ups and get alerts when credit is running low.

Does EDF Energy sell renewable energy?

EDF Energy's electricity fuel mix is 29% renewable, 62.1% nuclear, 7.5% gas, 1.3% coal and 0.1% other fuels.

The UK average fuel mix is 40.3% renewable.

When we asked EDF Energy, alongside other energy firms, to tell us more about its renewable electricity in August 2021, it declined to answer.

It told us that it is 'proud to be Britain's biggest generator of zero-carbon electricity', and says that it provides around 30% of the UK's zero-carbon electricity generation.

EDF also told us that it buys 'enough to power 1.7 million homes every year' from renewable generators.

Find out more about the differences between energy companies’ renewable electricity.

EDF Energy in the news

EDF Energy in 2021

September: Utility Point's 220,000 customers were transferred to EDF Energy after the smaller supplier stopped trading.

March: EDF Energy is paying around 70,000 of its customers a total of over £500,000 after overcharging them when they switched supplier or tariff between 2013 and 2020. It was one of 18 energy firms found by regulator Ofgem to have failed to uphold these rules. Over 1 million customers were affected.

Affected customers will receive £7.06 each, on average.

January: EDF Energy took on 360,000 customers from Green Network Energy when the smaller firm stopped trading.

EDF Energy in 2020

December: EDF Energy agreed to pay £6m to the energy regulator Ofgem after it broke wholesale energy market regulations. It frequently inflated the minimum amount of power one of its plants was able to supply, which led to National Grid buying more energy than necessary. 

November: EDF Energy confirmed it would be shutting down its Hinkley Point B nuclear power plant in Somerset earlier than planned after cracks were discovered in its reactor's graphite core. 

August: EDF Energy said its Hunterston B nuclear power station in Ayrshire would be shut down two years early after cracks were found in the graphite core of its reactors.

March: After iSupply Energy announced it would stop operating, EDF Energy agreed to take on its customers.

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