Universal Registration Document 2021

A creator of services and solutions to support customers and territories in the shift towards carbon neutrality

Individuals, businesses and cities increasingly want to change their methods of lighting, heating, production, consumption and travel, etc. Everyone wishes to be a stakeholder in energy transition. This momentum, which is an aggregate of individual initiatives and public decisions, is gradually increasing 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 is enhancing the value of its customer portfolio in priority European countries (France, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Italy) on account of its benchmark-quality customer relations and an expanded range of service and supply offers.

In 2030, EDF group is aiming to achieve sales of €10 billion in services ⁽¹⁾.

EDF is strengthening its positions in the electric mobility sector (in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Belgium), in renewable heating and cooling networks in France, and also in leveraging electrical flexibility and aggregation (in Europe).

By building on customer confidence and developing a broad range of offers, in particular in sustainable energy performance in residential and business markets, EDF is growing value per customer and is seeking to achieve more than 1.5 contracts per residential customer in 2030 ⁽²⁾. Offerings for green energy, self-consumption, energy efficiency services, local services, contracts covering performance and electrical/climate engineering, waste heat recovery, and biomass all address its customers’ emerging needs.

EDF’s customers are increasingly aware of their environmental footprint. In response, EDF is providing affordable, innovative solutions that grant them access to smarter, lower energy use:

• by contributing to the decarbonisation of consumption through a shift to electricity use in the sectors that produce the most CO₂ :
  • ❯ Transport ⁽³⁾
  • to support the massive rollout of mobility electrification, EDF is making practical commitments: investing in support of customers (consumers, companies, and local authorities); leveraging electric vehicle storage capacity; and producing and marketing electrolytic hydrogen,
  • ❯ Buildings
  • The Group is highly committed alongside industry professionals, landlords, and local authorities to help them improve energy efficiency and transition towards decarbonisation of heating and cooling solutions. EDF offers a range of services that cover everything from monitoring and management of energy use through to decarbonisation and energy efficiency operations ⁽⁴⁾, in particular during renovation works. EDF also provides direct support for households ⁽⁵⁾ through IZI by EDF. Through its subsidiary Dalkia, the Group is actively engaged in developing heating networks and their decarbonisation(with the use of renewable energy sources or energy recovery) and the development of Energy Performance Contacts (Contrats de Performance Énergétique, CPE) for public buildings, companies, and residential complexes,
  • ❯ Industry
  • EDF develops electrification solutions for processes, waste heat recovery, and low-carbon electrolytic hydrogen production. It leverages its R&D expertise for the benefit of its industrial customers to assist them in upgrading their production facilities (electric boilers and furnaces, etc.) but also by proposing (via its subsidiary Agregio) flexible solutions or green supply offers.
• by building on the development of infrastructure, data, and the creation of low-carbon solutions;
• by helping its residential customers, businesses, and local authorities to play a more substantial role in their energy consumption (through self-consumption, digital consumption management solutions and heat pumps).

The aim of these solutions is for EDF to avoid the emission of over 15 million tonnes of CO₂ by 2030 ⁽⁶⁾.

In addition, EDF continues to innovate by developing new business models to assist customers with energy transition and put into practice the Group’s commitments regarding carbon neutrality. Innovation, both downstream and upstream, will be an essential factor in covering the required ground, given the speed at which renewable technology is progressing from storage to electric vehicles via hydrogen power and digital developments.

Building on its own R&D efforts and its innovation ecosystem developed with its partners, the EDF group selects those innovations that have the potential to accelerate energy transition, while supporting the French industrial fabric as much as possible.

Lastly, energy transition will only be achieved if it is just and equitable. The EDF group supports its customers by helping them to use energy more wisely. EDF pays particular attention to the most vulnerable customers and implement actions to reduce energy poverty (see section 3.3.4 “Energy poverty and social innovation”).

A global leader in the generation of CO₂-neutral electricity

Nearly 98% of electricity produced by EDF in France is decarbonised as a result of nuclear and renewable energies, therefore EDF is playing a leading role in achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Its action aims to accelerate the development of renewable energies in addition to its nuclear fleet, for which it guarantees safety, performance and competitiveness.

There is no single solution for ensuring low-carbon electricity, but rather an array of technologies: nuclear power, hydropower, solar power, onshore and offshore wind power, renewable heat, grids, storage and low-carbon thermal generation means, tools for managing flexibility in uses and production, etc.

EDF’s strategy is consistent with the announcements made by the French President of the Republic on 10 February 2022 in Belfort. He confirmed the growing role of low-carbon electricity in France's ambition to reduce French greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The President of the Republic has therefore announced:

• A strong strategy to boost nuclear energy in France, including:
  • ❯ the launch of a construction programme of 6 new EPR2 reactors and studies for potentially 8 more, which will notably mobilise massive public funding of several tens of billions of euros, even if the precise terms of this funding remain to be defined;
  • ❯ the continued operation of all existing French reactors, except for safety reasons (this extension of the operating period is therefore done without giving up any of the obligations in terms of nuclear safety), and in particular the need for EDF to study the conditions for an extension beyond 50 years, in conjunction with the Nuclear Safety Authority;
  • ❯ The development of small modular reactors (SMR), as well as innovative reactors allowing closing the fuel cycle and to produce less waste, with an additional intervention of the State up to €500 million for the NUWARD^TM project currently carried out by EDF.
• Acceleration in renewable energy development (solar, offshore and onshore wind and hydro).

(1) Group scope.

(2) scope comprising France, United Kingdom, Italy and Belgium (residential).

(3) Responsible for 24% of emissions relating to energy use worldwide – Source: French Ministry for Ecological Transition, Chiffres clés du climat, 2022 edition, page 38.

(4) Particularly through Energy Performance Contracts (Contrats de Performance Énergétique, CPE) and Energy Savings Certificates (Certificats d’Économie d’Énergie, CEE) in France.

(5) They may choose a heat pump to replace a fuel oil or gas-powered boiler that emits large quantities of CO₂.

(6) Customers, Services & Territories activities.