Low wholesale prices reduce EDF Energy profits by 29 per cent

EDF Energy said today that lower wholesale prices were behind a 29% reduction in operating profit for its UK business.

In 2016, the firm brought in an underlying operating profit of £470m, compared to £664m in 2015. This figure does not include a one-off impairment charge of £66m, mainly due to the reduction in the value of gas storage assets.

Announcing its 2016 results, the company also said that its existing UK nuclear power stations achieved their highest output since 2003. Output was 65.1 TWh, 4.5TWh higher than in 2015.  Its French power stations generated 384TWh, 7.9% less than in 2015, due primarily to additional controls resulting in outages or the extension of planned outages.

EDF Energy CEO Vincent de Rivaz said: “The exceptional performance of EDF Energy’s existing nuclear power stations is making a huge contribution to security of supply and providing large volumes of reliable, low carbon electricity.”

He continued: “We continue to focus on providing the best possible customer service and bringing innovation to energy use at home. In 2017 we will step up our programme to install smart meters. We are currently installing 900 a day.  This will increase to 2,300 smart meters a day by the end of the year.”

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