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 67% 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 35 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.

In 2020 customers from iSupply Energy were transferred to EDF after the smaller firm decided to close its doors. In 2019 EDF Energy took on customers from failed suppliers Toto Energy and Solarplicity.

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 score

EDF Energy is ranked joint-20th out of 25 energy companies rated by 7,460 members of the public in the annual Which? customer survey. It shares its ranking with E. 

Of the other big energy companies, Ovo appears a fair bit higher in our table – in joint-eighth spot. British Gas ranks above EDF Energy in joint-18th place. Eon and SSE (joint-22nd), Scottish Power (24th) and Npower rank below it. 

EDF score breakdown

The graphic 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.

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

Which? verdict on EDF

EDF Energy’s customers gave its bill accuracy a good rating with four out of five stars and rated it fair on bill clarity, customer service and complaints handling. 

On these last three measures it ranks the same as competitors British Gas, Eon and SSE. In fact, British Gas and Eon scored identically on all aspects we asked customers about.

EDF Energy customers were not positive about its value for money, for which it achieved a poor two-star rating. While British Gas and Eon also got two stars, SSE, Scottish Power and Npower achieved just one. The highest-scoring provider managed five stars.

EDF Energy has some cheaper deals, but they're 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.

According to published complaints data, EDF Energy had a fairly high level of complaints per 1,000 customers in the first half of 2020. It received more than 17 complaints per 1,000 customers. Some firms received fewer than three complaints from the same number of customers.

It managed to resolve 57% of them on the same or next working day. The best firms managed 90% or more.

In September and October 2020, we called energy companies 12 times each, at different times and on different days. EDF took 13 minutes 26 seconds on average to pick up the phone, making it more than twice as slow as the average wait time (5 minutes 57 seconds) among the 31 energy firms we contacted in our snapshot investigation into energy companies' phone and online customer service waiting times. 

However, it was faster than three of its large rivals: British Gas, Npower and Eon.

You’ll get a much faster response from EDF's live chat, according to our investigation, as this saw the provider respond to us in just 20 seconds on average, making it the second fastest company to answer using this service.

Pros: Good if you want low-carbon nuclear power

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

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.

EDF Energy electricity sources

EDF Energy in the news

EDF Energy in 2021

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.

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. 

The company also launched what it said was one of the cheapest tariffs for drivers of electric vehicles.

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 and said they would be moved over to it between April and June.

EDF Energy in 2019

October: EDF Energy took on 134,000 customers from failed supplier Toto Energy. 

Many of Toto’s customers saw a price drop according to Ofgem. Plus their credit balances were honoured, including those of customers who had switched away from Toto Energy. 

August: EDF Energy took on 7,500 customers from failed supplier Solarplicity. It said it would honour credit balances for both current and former Solarplicity customers. 

If Solarplicity paid your solar feed-in tariff, you would have needed to appoint a new supplier; EDF Energy wouldn't have paid you automatically. 

February: EDF Energy announced a 10% price rise for the 1.3 million customers on its standard tariff from 1 April (when the price cap increased). This added £118 per year extra to their gas and electricity bills, on average. Prepayment meter customers paid 9% (or £106) more per year. 

EDF also announced that it had lost around 200,000 customer accounts during 2018.

EDF Energy in 2018

June: EDF Energy had to pay £350,000 for missing its 2017 smart meter roll-out target. Suppliers must set their own installation targets, which energy regulator Ofgem monitors. It said EDF Energy met its target in January 2018. The money will go to Ofgem’s fund to support customers in vulnerable situations.

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