Pursuant to the CAP 2030 strategy, and in line with the guidelines adopted by the French authorities for the PPE, EDF group is mobilised to meet all aspects of the challenges of energy transition, in all territories in which it operates.
In France, this ambition requires an overall reform of the electricity market and of the conditions for obtaining a fair return on nuclear assets. In this context, the French Government launched a consultation on adopting a new regulatory framework to replace the ARENH (see section 2.2.1 “Market regulation, political and legal risks -1B Evolution of the regulatory framework”) and has requested the Group’s Executive Management to reflect on a new organisation in connection with this reform. This Possible change in the Group’s organisation, which is envisaged only if the regulatory framework reform projects are carried out, could lead in particular to a spinoff of the downstream and services activities, the renewable energies and distribution activities, which would be grouped together in a structure in which a minority interest would be listed (called “GREEN”), and which would be majority-owned and controlled by the parent company (called “BLUE”), which would itself directly operate all nuclear activities, as well as EDF hydropower fleet. The respective scopes of these entities have by no means been conclusively determined at this stage and will be clarified in due course if this reorganisation project (“HERCULE” project) is actually undertaken.
In any event, the HERCULE project should maintain BLUE and GREEN as two integrated entities within the Group. This possible change in the Group’s Organization, which is exclusively subject to the successful completion of the project to review the regulatory framework, would aim at strengthening the Group’s Investment and financing capacities to enable it to be the leader in the energy transition, while safeguarding an integrated Group. Discussions are currently underway on this subject, and are conditional on the reform of the nuclear regulatory framework.
Increasingly, individuals, businesses and cities want to change the way they light, heat, produce, consume and travel. This momentum, an aggregate of individual initiatives and public decisions, is gradually expanding everywhere. EDF’s goal is to assist customers and local areas to achieve CO2 neutrality with accessible and innovative carbon-free and energy-efficient solutions.
In doing so, EDF relies on its customer portfolio in key European countries (France, UK, Belgium and Italy) with an unparalleled customer relationship and an enhanced range of services and supply offers:
The commitment made by all countries at the COP21 aims to keep the rise in temperatures well below 2°C. It triggered a collective movement to act differently. Inits 2019 report on “Nuclear Power in a Clean Energy System”, the International Energy Agency (IEA) stated that nuclear power is an indispensable tool for keeping global warming below 2°C compared to the pre-industrial period: without nuclear power, the IEA’s experts believe that achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement Will be much more costly and will require insurmountable efforts from the international community.
Because 97% of electricity in France is carbon-free thanks to nuclear and renewable energies, EDF is playing a leading role in achieving this objective by accelerating the development of renewable energies while guaranteeing the safety, performance and competitiveness of existing nuclear facilities and Nuclear New Build investments.
EDF’s ambition to achieve a very low-carbon generation goal starts with the consolidation of its hydropower and nuclear asset base:
At the same time, the EDF group is actively pursuing its development in renewable energies (with the objective of doubling the installed capacity of the Group’s ENR and hydropower fleet from 28GW in 2014 to 50GW in 2030) and in Nuclear New Build.
With regard to renewable energy, the new means developed will be essentially onshore and offshore wind power, solar energy and hydropower. The development of these assets outside France is undertaken in line with the EDF group international strategy.
To deal with the challenges of demographics, urbanisation and air pollution, many countries are looking for solutions that can improve the situation. EDF, which operates on all continents, supports this energy transition by exporting its expertise in nuclear power, renewable energies and energy services.
The EDF group wants to be a key player in the energy market in France and in its core countries in Europe (United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium) by playing a role in energy security, the enhancing of economic competitiveness and the European economy low-carbon transition, in line with public policies.
EDF is also expanding outside Europe, thanks to a targeted approach in geographic terms and steering its investment choices by giving priority to low-carbon generation projects, in particular hydraulic, wind and solar generation projects as well as energy services and engineering activities. It is expanding storage capacities and developing gas production projects in areas where these are key factors for energy transition, inline with the Group’s commitments to low CO2 emissions.
Health and safety, digital and new work practices, responsibility and simplification, skills and the recognition model are the five major levers of the Group’s transformation.
The Group adapts its managerial practices by empowering the teams, streamlining its organisations and modus operandi, as illustrated by a number of concrete examples since 2016 (introduction of fixed numbers of working days for managers, boosting career paths and promoting internal mobility and promotional training, streamlining and simplification of Group policies, etc.) and other more recent examples, such as the digital signature of contracts and the simplification of financial and non-financial reporting. In 2018, EDF also signed a new global agreement on Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR agreement”) which includes improvements in favour of diversity and to the benefit of Group employees. In 2019, a new management-labour dialogue approach was adopted, simplified and set up, in accordance with new legal requirements (see section 3.3.3.1.7 “A renewed social dialogue”).
