French-owned utility boost tariffs for UK customers
The five million UK customers of London Energy, Seeboard Energy and SWEB Energy are to see gas and electricity prices rise as EDF Energy, the UK energy business of France’s Electricité de France, increases its prices for domestic electricity customers by 5.4% and by 8.1% for domestic gas customers. The increase is the third in under a year, and translates into a 16.2% rise in gas tariffs and 15.9% in electricity tariffs since last March. Vincent de Rivaz, EDF Energy’s chief executive, says, “World energy prices continue to drive up our costs.” However, increases by UK supply companies British Gas (Centrica), npower and Powergen still outweigh those by the French-backed counterparts.
Meanwhile, EDF Energy has agreed to purchase the total output of the Kentish Flats wind farm in the Thames Estuary – estimated at some 300 GWh – for the next three years at a cost of £50 million. EDF, like all UK energy companies, has to take 5% of its electricity from renewable sources, rising to 10% by the end of the decade.