Customers give EDF thumbs down

LONDON'S main electricity supplier, the French State-owned EDF group, is among the country's worst energy providers, a new report has found.

A major customer satisfaction survey by consultants JD Power of Britain's electricity and gas suppliers, found EDF performing below the industry average for both types of household energy.

Only German-owned npower came out worse in the survey.

JD Power consultant Gunda Lapski said EDF's unpopularity with its customers may be due to price increases in recent months which have sent residential energy bills in the capital soaring by up to 10%

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The top-rated electricity supplier in the survey was Powergen, which recently took on hundreds of thousands of new customers north and east of London after the collapse of TXU.

Scottish & Southern Energy, and Scottish Power were the top-rated gas suppliers, reflecting their successful attacks on the customer base of the dominant market player British Gas.