27 September 2012

EDF Energy reintroduce Blue + Price Promise tariff

EDF have relaunched their Blue +Price Promise tariff. Although the features remain the same as before the price has gone up.

Their most popular tariff has returned albeit with prices around 6-8% higher (depending on consumption and where you live) than its predecessor.

EDF say all the electricity supplied will be from low carbon emission generation, by which they mean nuclear. For an additional 0.153 p/kWh, which works out at about 2% on your total bill, you can opt to offset the carbon emissions from your gas usage. This should give you and not the polar bears a warm feeling inside.

It's also one of only two fixed rate tariffs that do not levy charges for early termination if a better deal comes along.

The Blue + Price Promise May 2014 comes with EDF's promise to let you know if any other tariff is £52 per year less expensive on "national standard” usage. While this sounds good and appears to be a good guarantee, there are a few issues:

If you don't use 3,300kWh electricity (5,000kWh for economy 7) and 16,500 kWh gas the price difference could be greater.

The regional price differences can also increase the gap. For example, in the Southern Electric area (moneymaxim's HQ) standard usage EDF is £47.61 more expensive than First:Utility's iSave Fixed Price v4 March 2014. In the Seeboard area that gap grows to £60.19, but they won't tell you because over the whole country the gap is under £52

Comparing just those two regions EDF's Blue +Price Promise May 2014 is:

• either £21.64 or £57.08 more expensive than Ovo Energy's New Energy Fixed tariff.
• either £41.75 or £50.66 more expensive than Scottish Power's Online Fixed Price Energy March 2014

So with that 6-8% price rise, EDF have positioned themselves more expensive than the best of opposition though way ahead of British Gas, saving £169.32 or £171.60 for the two areas above.

The best way to see how well EDF's new Blue +Price Promise May 2014 compares is to check it out for your area and your actual usage. If you use our energy comparison service you may be pleasantly surprised with what you find.