“We want to be recognised as a leading and respected point of reference on matters concerning our business.”

Awards

During 2004, we won a number of awards across the business. We won the National Customer Service Disability Award, a Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Order of Distinction for Cottam Power Station, a Business in the Community regional award, and the Utility Industry Marketing Initiative of the Year Award. We also won two national awards from the British Construction Industry for our multi-million pound Channel Tunnel Rail Link first phase project.

Industry Leader

Our business is doing things differently and taking a lead on important issues. We were the first energy company to bring prepayment prices in line with standard credit prices and were commended by energywatch for leading the industry by not penalising lower income customers. We were also the first energy company to set up a trust fund to support customers struggling to pay their fuel bills. The EDF Energy Trust last year distributed £764,056 to individuals and advice centres.

We have introduced a final salary pension scheme for all employees, bucking the trend, as many UK companies are closing these down.

Our £230 million investment in the flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) facilities at our two coal-fired power stations has already halved emissions of acid rain-causing sulphur dioxide (SO₂). This improvement will continue in 2005.

We have led the industry in our discussions with Ofgem on replacing oil-filled cables and in 2005 we will introduce new cable technologies into the UK.

Brand Development

EDF Energy sought to increase brand recognition in 2004 by creating a new customer-facing EDF Energy national supply brand. To further integrate the company, we rebranded our Development Branch, the company's unregulated operations, to EDF Energy. In 2005, we seek to further consolidate the brand by bringing metering services under the EDF Energy brand.

London 2012

A key development for us in 2004 was becoming the first Premier Partner of London's bid to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We have been touring London, the north east, the south west, the south and the east of England with our London 2012 Leap Counter, asking people to 'Leap for London' and add their support to the bid. We tied in our support for the 2012 bid to sponsorship of other regional, national and international sporting events, and redesigned our Learning theough Landscape awards to be activity-based.