EDF fined £2,000,000

[Stoday]

Our favourite (!) DNO has been fined £2,000,000 by OFGEM, the regulator.

Press Release

 

[Chri5]

Our favourite (!) DNO has been fined £2,000,000 by OFGEM, the regulator.

Press Release

Just means 5 million customers will end up paying UK Gov Inc 40p extra.


These fines maybe justified, but seriously where do you think the money is recovered from ?

 

[matt1e]

These fines maybe justified, but seriously where do you think the money is recovered from ?

My thoughts exactly chris and here is another thought for you all to ponder while we are all saving energy,the planet blah,blah,blah
we are all being told how much we are going to save by saving energy, fitting energy savers, draught proofing zoning off heating etc,Don't get me wrong I'm all for it but its still gonna cost! -me,and you
lets do the maths
just to keep things simple lets say I live in a house with 10 light fittings, nothing fancy,just 10 pendants each with a 100w lamp now lets get saving!
so I take out my 10 one hundred watt bulbs and replace them with 10 energy efficient ten watt bulbs
now instead of using one kilowatt per hour I'm now using 100 watts per hr
I have now lowered my energy consumption by 90% and the power station has to make 90% less everyone's happy and the worlds going to be saved! great eh? well yes it would be but for one thing -
PROFIT
these are privatised companies now remember and
my 90% saving equates to a 90% reduction in productivity and a 90% reduction in profit so what does the utility company do?A 90% drop in sales is huge for any company!
do you honestly believe that the soaring fuel prices we are all now experiencing is all down to the cost of raw materials? get real, they're businesses and the more energy efficient you are the more they are losing and the more they will increase prices to compensate
It can never work and never will
now if it was state owned and ran fairly now thats a different story less energy needed equates to less raw materials less wear and tear less maintenance etc for us to pay for
and hence smaller bills
mmm and I'm starting to rabbit on again

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Just means 5 million customers will end up paying UK Gov Inc 40p extra.


These fines maybe justified, but seriously where do you think the money is recovered from ?

The way to do it is to fine the chief executive personally. Not £2M obviously, but if you ran a company like that, and were faced with the possibility of a severe personal financial loss if the people who worked for you failed in their legal obligations you'd make damned sure they didn't fail.

The fine is about an hour and a half's worth of gross profit.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

lets do the maths
.
.
.
my 90% saving equates to a 90% reduction in productivity and a 90% reduction in profit so what does the utility company do?A 90% drop in sales is huge for any company!

Should we not do the maths with an assumption that not everybody has only lighting in their home, none of which has yet been replaced with energy efficient types, and that CFLs are not 10% of incandescents for the same light output, and therefore that switching to CFLs will not reduce the sales of electricity by 90%?

 

[EddieM]

These fines maybe justified, but seriously where do you think the money is recovered from ?

My thoughts exactly chris and here is another thought for you all to ponder while we are all saving energy,the planet blah,blah,blah
we are all being told how much we are going to save by saving energy, fitting energy savers, draught proofing zoning off heating etc,Don't get me wrong I'm all for it but its still gonna cost! -me,and you
lets do the maths
just to keep things simple lets say I live in a house with 10 light fittings, nothing fancy,just 10 pendants each with a 100w lamp now lets get saving!
so I take out my 10 one hundred watt bulbs and replace them with 10 energy efficient ten watt bulbs
now instead of using one kilowatt per hour I'm now using 100 watts per hr
I have now lowered my energy consumption by 90% and the power station has to make 90% less everyone's happy and the worlds going to be saved! great eh? well yes it would be but for one thing -
PROFIT
these are privatised companies now remember and
my 90% saving equates to a 90% reduction in productivity and a 90% reduction in profit so what does the utility company do?A 90% drop in sales is huge for any company!
do you honestly believe that the soaring fuel prices we are all now experiencing is all down to the cost of raw materials? get real, they're businesses and the more energy efficient you are the more they are losing and the more they will increase prices to compensate
It can never work and never will
now if it was state owned and ran fairly now thats a different story less energy needed equates to less raw materials less wear and tear less maintenance etc for us to pay for
and hence smaller bills
mmm and I'm starting to rabbit on again

Where does all the heat from your bulbs go? Your electricity consumption may have gone down, but your gas/electric heating consumption just went up as well.

 

[matt1e]

lets do the maths
.
.
.
my 90% saving equates to a 90% reduction in productivity and a 90% reduction in profit so what does the utility company do?A 90% drop in sales is huge for any company!

Should we not do the maths with an assumption that not everybody has only lighting in their home, none of which has yet been replaced with energy efficient types, and that CFLs are not 10% of incandescents for the same light output, and therefore that switching to CFLs will not reduce the sales of electricity by 90%?

just to keep things simple lets say.......

I was going to cost it at 10p per unit as well,come off it, fair enough maybe not 90% but you can see what I'm getting at

Should we not do the maths with an assumption that not everybody has only lighting in their home, none of which has yet been replaced with energy efficient types

they will be paying even more per quarter, they get the same rise in charges

Where does all the heat from your bulbs go? Your electricity consumption may have gone down, but your gas/electric heating consumption just went up as well.

mmmmmmm

 

[JohnD]

...lets do the maths
just to keep things simple lets say I live in a house with 10 light fittings, ...

My house has 20 light fittings, almost all of them have CFLs. However I also have a washing machine, a tumble drier and a dishwasher. In winter I use an electric heater in the bedroom. These loads use far far more than all my lights would, even if they were all incandescent lamps. Lighting is an insignificant electrical load. Space and water heating, and air con, are the major domestic loads.

BTW since we live in a competitive energy market, EDF can't just winch their prices up to make the customer pay and maintain their profits. This fine is going to come out of the shareholders' pockets.

As EDF is owned by the French Government, I don't care at all.

 

[matt1e]

Lighting is an insignificant electrical load. Space and water heating, and air con, are the major domestic loads.

in comparison yes but hardly insignificant to EDF when you multiply KWH x pence per unit x millions of people over the year! and hardly insignificant when they are so inefficient that governments worldwide are calling bans on incandescent lamps

BTW since we live in a competitive energy market, EDF can't just winch their prices up to make the customer pay and maintain their profits. This fine is going to come out of the shareholders' pockets.

this fine is a truly insignificant amount of money compared to the effects on profit that switching from incandescent lamps to energy savers will have,
I reckon!!
that is to say this is my view, but other opinions welcomed

 

[JohnD]

... hardly insignificant to EDF when you multiply KWH x pence per unit x millions of people over the year! and hardly insignificant when they are so inefficient that governments worldwide are calling bans on incandescent lamps

Lighting is an insignificant load as a percentage of domestic usage, and as percentage of total usage. Hence it is an insignificant percentage of total capacity and of profits of generating, distribution and supply companies. Economic growth and decline change total usage far more than the switch to CFLs will make.

But I have no problem with making savings, even when they are only a tiny percentage.

I don't work in the Electricity trade any more, but I believe EDF in the UK owns Generation capacity, plus the old London Electricity, Eastern Electricity and SEEBOARD PESes

p.s. To work out how significant the fine was to them, I tried to find the annual Revenue and Profits of EDF, but can't. However, out of interest, Scottish & Southern (which is a very big mainly UK operator, but not as big as EDF which is mainly French) had a revenue in year ending 31-Mar-09 of £25,424.20 million

So £2 million would have been about one thirteen-thousandth of annual revenue. Less than an hour's worth, by my calculation. And far less in EDF's revenue which I assume to be much bigger.

 

[matt1e]

John found this via google did not see anything on UK turnover though

Paris - State-owned French energy supplier EDF saw its profits fall by nearly 40 per cent in 2008 as it continued to expand its nuclear energy division abroad, the company said on Thursday.

Profits for last year stood at 3.4 billion euros (4.4 billion dollars), down 39.5 per cent from 2007, EDF said in a press statement.

The company said that part of the downturn was attributable to one-time costs linked to the opening of the French energy market to competition.

Turnover for the year rose by 7.8 per cent, to 64.28 billion euros.

Read more: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/n...as_nuclear_expansion_continues_#ixzz0MCh9rJJb
I was going to try and work it out too but the lure of the Chinese seems more attractive

 

[Stoday]

It makes a noticable hole in EDF's distribution company profits, which were £353m in 2008.

Regulatory Accounts

There's no competition in distribution, so its charges are regulated. I'm certain that the regulator won't allow EDF to recover the fine by increasing its charges.