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 three million homes.

Around 70% of EDF’s electricity comes from nuclear power and it owns eight nuclear power stations, as well as one coal, one gas 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.

Over the coming months customers from iSupply Energy will be transferred to EDF after the smaller firm decided to close its doors. In the past year, EDF Energy has also taken 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 27th out of 35 energy companies rated by 7,355 members of the public, in the annual Which? customer survey. It shares its ranking with British Gas. Of the other big energy companies, Ovo appears a fair bit higher in our table – in ninth spot, while Eon and SSE (joint 24th) both ranked a little higher. The last of the energy giants, Scottish Power, finished in 33rd position.

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 rated it fair on bill accuracy and clarity, customer service and digital tools. On these, it ranks the same as competitors such as British Gas and SSE. In fact, British Gas 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, Npower and Scottish Power also got two stars, Eon and SSE gained three stars. The highest-scoring providers managed four 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, although it has also launched a tariff priced 2.5% below the price cap.

The aspect of EDF Energy’s service which received the highest rating from customers was complaints handling. This was the only area for which it gained four stars.

Only two firms in the survey gained a higher complaints star rating. Most other suppliers received an average three stars; Green Star Energy was the only firm to get two stars.

According to published complaints data, EDF Energy had one of the higher levels of complaints per 1,000 customers in the first half of 2019. It received 20 or more complaints per 1,000 customers. Some firms received fewer than one complaint from the same number of customers.

It managed to resolve more than 50% of them on the same or next working day, although other firms managed 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, customers say it handles complaints well

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

EDF Energy electricity sources

EDF Energy in the news