EDF MD: Why I was wrong about the pandemic

Six months into the pandemic and EDF Energy has had plenty of time to understand its impact on both its business and consumers. Managing director Philippe Commaret catches up with Utility Week and explains how his fears about the impact on the smart meter rollout have dissipated, how energy consumption patterns bode well for home workers and how a new service is helping customers with a smart meter better understand their usage.

“We have to move from a culture which might have been very process orientated in the past, to a culture which is much more solution orientated, listening very carefully to what our customers are saying.”

When Utility Week last caught up with Philippe Commaret, the worst of the initial phases of the pandemic appeared to be over. Restrictions were easing and there was a sense of hope moving into summer. Fast-forward four months, more restrictions are being announced and the energy retail sector is preparing for an uncertain winter. At EDF, domestic debt has already risen by 9 per cent, while debt amongst its SME customers has risen by 21 per cent.

Yet Commaret is keen to explain what the supplier has learned and why he believes the impact over the coming months will not be as hard on consumers as first thought. EDF’s analysts had previously tracked consumption data for customers who were home working before the pandemic and Commaret believes the findings bode well for the coming winter.

He begins: “I asked my data analysts to look specifically at what heating consumption was for customers working from home, compared to those not working at home. What is really interesting and probably a bit counter-intuitive, the patterns are no different. People typically set a limit on how cold their house gets when they are not around, so in general home temperature tends to only fluctuate a few degrees between when they are out or at home during colder months, that is why we don’t believe that the impact will be big for those working at home.”

Further data collected by EDF relates to the pattern of online search terms. Commaret and his team have observed that over the summer consumers were searching for more home solutions, such as insulation, to help reduce their consumption and bills.

He continues: “That’s one of the reasons why we have launched a campaign in respect of the implementation of Green Homes Grants. We ask our customers whether they would like access to a list of installers of green home initiatives and more than 10,000 have asked for this service.”

A smarter future

After lockdown was introduced the rate of smart meter installations fell dramatically, with an almost 95 per cent decrease in April alone. Smart installers were initially only allowed to enter homes in emergencies, where consumers were either off supply or in danger of being so. Additionally, Commaret was concerned about customers being reluctant to allow engineers back into their homes once lockdown was over.

“One of my fears was that because of the pandemic, customers would be reluctant to have smart meters installed in their home. To be perfectly honest, I was wrong”, says Commaret.

He further explains that in the three weeks to October 1, EDF engineers were installing around 10,000 smart meters per week, close to pre-pandemic levels. Like its market rivals, EDF views the devices as critical to customers better understanding their energy usage. To this end, it is preparing to launch a service in November called Energy Hub which will allow eligible customers on single rate tariffs to keep track of their consumption in a user-friendly way.

He continues: “To encourage our customers to have a smart meter installed we are launching a new service called Energy Hub which is free for all our customers with an eligible smart meter. It enables them to have access to meter readings which are displayed in pounds so you can understand what we are speaking about. Much more interestingly it gives you a split of consumption by type of appliances and we will provide alerts to help them better manage and budget their consumption.”

A group of 1,000 customers have been testing the new service over the past year, with EDF staff also joining in the test at the beginning of the pandemic.

“It has been designed to be simple. What our customers are asking for is ease, they don’t want to spend too much time on things that are made by engineers for engineers. They want things that are really easy, like bits of advice they can take on a weekly basis in order to better manage their consumption, things that really have an impact on their bill, especially this winter. That is what we are trying to deliver with this service.”

In the months leading up to lockdown being announced, the supplier acquired a majority stake in EV charging company Pod Point as part of a joint venture with Legal and General Capital. With an eye on the future, Commaret adds that the company is retraining smart meter engineers to become EV charge-point installers, providing them with some “blue sky” when the rollout inevitably comes to an end.

He continues: “Pod Point needs to deliver an incredible number of installations so we offered to train some of our operatives to install EV charge-points. We are just at the beginning of this journey, recently I was celebrating the fact we had completed more than 100 EV charge-point installations, we are obviously ramping those up.

“As the number of smart meter installations increases, we may not have a job for our installers in the future. To provide them with a piece of blue sky, we are training them to install charge-points.”

The 3 pillars of success

As one of the legacy suppliers, EDF has around 5 million customer accounts and, like its large counterparts, faces increased competition from ever successful challenger brands. The firm prides itself on its high Trustpilot rating, as well as its fifth place ranking, the highest of any large supplier, in the most recent Citizens Advice star ratings table. EDF is well-aware however of its fierce competition and Commaret highlights how the company is trying to keep pace with its newer rivals, pointing to three key pillars to success; better service, value added offerings and efficiency.

“I think the way to tackle competition first and foremost is to deliver better service. We are always looking to perform well and we are rated excellent on Trustpilot, we are very proud to be number one on the Citizens Advice league table amongst of the large and medium suppliers. What is really very important is to be cautious about each conversation we have with our customers so we can listen to the issues they are facing and propose solutions that are designed for them. We have to move from a culture which might have been very process orientated in the past, to a culture which is much more solution orientated, listening very carefully to what our customers are saying.”

Commaret further explains that delivering value added services and solutions, such as improving digital services like mobile apps and delivering EV charge-point installations is also key.

“We must also recognise that some of those suppliers may be more efficient than us in some areas so it means we need to always reconsider the way we are doing our job in order to invent new ways of doing our jobs in a more efficient way for our customers”, he adds.

Homeworking

EDF was quick to move around 3,200 of its 4,000-strong UK staff to homeworking at the beginning of the pandemic. At present around 200 people are working from an office, less than 10 per cent of the company’s workforce and EDF’s advice remains that those who can work from home should continue to do so. Yet concerns arising from a company-wide survey shows an increase in those struggling to work from home. To mitigate this, EDF has introduced the capability for some staff to do so from an office.

“Since the beginning of September we have restarted the ability to book rooms in order to arrange meetings, those meetings have to be assessed firstly by our health and safety teams. There is a lot of uncertainty. For example Doxford near Sunderland is under local lockdown so we are no longer pursuing the trial to facilitate team meetings there. In the south, in London and Brighton, we are pursuing those trials in order to try and help our employees reconnect with each other when they want to do so. It’s always on a voluntary basis, we don’t want to push people that don’t feel comfortable to go into work.”