With a record profit of 10 billion euros in 2023, EDF wants to make a gesture for small businesses in difficulty.
As part of “personalized support”, the electrician will offer its small business clients the opportunity to renegotiate their contracts by extending them over a “longer period, to allow for a reduction in costs”, indicated the CEO of EDF Luc Rémont during the presentation of the group's results.
“We are in an environment of falling prices while being aware that in 2024 there will still be customers who suffer from high prices,” added Luc Rémont, citing the case of SMEs “in the hotel and Restoration ".
EDF intends to respond on a “case by case” basis to the situations of small businesses which would remain in 2024 or even 2025 under the effect of high-priced electricity contracts, signed from mid-2022 at the height of the energy crisis.
These contracts generally last 1 to 3 years and are subject to termination fees, which is not the case for individuals.
Certain companies linked by contracts at 300, 400, 600 euros per MWh
With this support solution, an SME which would have subscribed to a contract for 2023-2024 at the worst of the crisis and would like to “contract for an additional period after 2024”, would see its average price drop “up to 30 to 40%” per year. compared to the price of its contract in 2024, detailed EDF.
Electricity on the markets is currently trading around 70 euros per MWh, very far from the record peak of summer 2022 (more than 1,000 euros), but some companies still remain bound by contracts at 300, 400, 600 euros the MWh, we note from Bercy which is the only shareholder of the company.
“There was a request from Bercy, which was immediately accepted by Luc Rémont,” said the Ministry of the Economy.
This announcement from EDF is in addition to existing government measures for VSEs, SMEs and mid-sized companies such as the price ceiling, electricity shock absorber or even the aid window, Bercy underlined.
This boost to small businesses comes as the number of business failures in France in 2023 is increasing by 35.8% compared to 2022 with 57,729 open procedures.
For the fourth quarter alone, according to the Altares firm, they were up 37.2%, to 16,820, compared to the same for 2022. “Previously, only the recession period of 1992-1993 had brought France to comparable thresholds for a last trimester,” notes the study.