Taking a Lead

We are already taking a lead on many important matters concerning our business. We are taking a lead in the way we care for our customers, in particular our most vulnerable customers, through the development of the EDF Energy Trust and through our Priority Services Team, which in 2004 won the Customer Service Disability Award. We are also bucking the industry trend by keeping our customer service centres in the UK. We believe that UK-based customer service staff can serve UK customers in the best, most empathetic and safest manner. In the long term, we believe that having superior customer service will attract and retain customers. We are leading the industry in our discussions with Ofgem regarding the replacement of fluid-filled cables and we have introduced a final salary pension scheme at a time when many other organisations abandoned theirs.

We are also leading the industry in the projects we are undertaking. The new 68 mile link from the Channel Tunnel to Kings Cross station in London is the first new railway to be built in the UK for over a century and is scheduled to come into service by the end of 2006.

EDF Energy was appointed to design, construct, finance, own, operate and maintain the critical electrical infrastructure between the public Distribution Network Operator and the connection serving the railway catenary system and other services.

The success of EDF Energy's work to energise stage one of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link was acknowledged when the Major Projects and Contracting businesses within Development Branch were awarded two out of three of the British Construction Industry's (BCI) top awards for major building and civil engineering projects.

The Major Projects arm of the company's Development Branch won the award for the power engineering aspects of the job. Power Engineering formed one of three categories in the BCI Award for projects valued at more than £50 million.

It was judged that no other major project comes anywhere near the achievement of CTRL Section 1, delivered on time, on budget and with a very high degree of safety.

The High Voltage Engineering Department of EDF Energy Contracting won a separate award for its part in the upgrading of the power system.

The work involved the installation of new equipment as well as upgrading existing equipment.

These awards are recognition by our industry peers of the commitment and skill of the whole project team, and they reflect the commitment and competence of the EDF Energy project teams working to deliver Britain's first truly high-speed railway.