Is EDF Energy worth switching to? A customer's review

Affiliate disclosure: this post contains my EDF referral link. If you use it, EDF pays each of us £50 in bill credit, and your tariff and prices are the same as if you went direct.

My electricity has been with EDF since mid-July 2026, on its Simply Tracker tariff, at 2,095 kWh a year in Region H (Southern). My gas stayed with Octopus Energy on a fix, so I now run one supplier per fuel. It is my second spell with EDF, which supplied my electricity until I left it for Octopus in September 2019.

What Simply Tracker has charged me

EDF prices Simply Tracker's unit rate (what you pay per kWh) in line with the latest Ofgem price cap, and gives its standing charge (the daily fee you pay before using anything) "a daily discount of 6.85p (inc VAT) for both electricity and gas", the same in every region and at any usage. The discount is worth £25 a year per fuel.

My July to September 2026 bills followed that mechanism. My unit rate was 26.42p, the Region H cap rate to the penny, and my standing charge was 42.84p a day against the cap's 49.70p, a gap of 6.86p: the 6.85p discount plus a hundredth of a penny of rounding.

At my usage that came to £709.89 a year: £25.04 under the cap, £12.97 under Octopus Flexible, and £70.13 over the Octopus 12-month fix I left. The working, and the formula for running it at your own usage, are on the EDF referral page.

I moved anyway because that fix was ending in September 2026 and would have rolled onto a variable rate, and against Octopus's variable rate the tracker was the cheaper of the two.

What changed on 1 October

Ofgem's cap for October to December 2026 set Region H electricity at 26.47p a kWh and 47.81p a day, with no VAT on electricity from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027. EDF's public tariff API still shows Simply Tracker's electricity standing charge exactly 6.85p a day under its standard variable tariff's, in all 14 regions, which puts the tracker at 26.47p and 40.96p a day in Region H.

The fix I left was priced below the cap. The 12-month fix Octopus lists from 19 October is priced above it: 30.56p a kWh in Southern, 4.09p over the cap's unit rate, with a standing charge of 46.30p a day. At October's rates Simply Tracker is the cheaper of the two on both parts of the bill.

That premium buys protection against a rise, and EDF says one is coming. Its listing for the tracker it now sells to new customers, Simply Tracker Jan28, opens: "Please note: Tracker prices will go up significantly on 1 Jan when the Ofgem price cap rises." A tracker passes a cap rise straight to your bill. A fix bought in October charges its premium from the first day, whatever January brings.

The switch, the credit and the app

EDF asked for a postcode and bank details, quoted me, and handled the rest with Octopus. I gave no meter reading and did not contact my old supplier. Supply moved in about two weeks with no interruption, and I paid no exit fee because the fix on that fuel was inside its final period. My smart meter came across from Octopus with nothing to fix, reading half-hourly.

I joined through a friend's referral link. About a month after my first direct debit, £50 in bill credit landed on my account and £50 on theirs, against EDF's "typically takes around four weeks from when your friend joins". The credit cannot be withdrawn as cash, so it reaches you as energy you were buying anyway. The terms, and the link, are on the EDF referral page.

The EDF app is also where Flextras lives, the loyalty scheme EDF launched on 7 September 2026. I joined on 10 September in about a minute. Its 12-month tastecard is worth £47.88 at tastecard's cheapest advertised price, and its free electricity is worth far less, which my Flextras review prices hour by hour.

Where EDF's electricity comes from

EDF describes itself as "Britain's biggest generator of zero carbon electricity", which is about its power stations. What it supplies is a different mix. Its fuel mix disclosure (opens in new tab), the breakdown every UK supplier must publish, puts the electricity EDF Energy Customers Limited supplied from April 2025 to March 2026 at 41.1% nuclear, 23.0% renewable, 28.5% gas and 5.0% coal, at 173g of CO2 per kWh. The UK averages EDF prints beside it are 13.7% nuclear and 48.0% renewable.

Which part of that mix you buy depends on the tariff. EDF sold mine, Simply Tracker Sep27, as "backed by zero carbon electricity", and the same disclosure puts EDF's zero-carbon products at 100% nuclear. The Jan28 tracker's listing carries no such line, and the tariffs EDF sells as neither zero carbon nor renewable came to 7.7% renewable, 44.0% nuclear and 233g of CO2 per kWh.

EDF against Octopus, having had both

Octopus supplied my electricity from September 2019 to July 2026 and still supplies my gas, and my Octopus review covers those years. On the parts I have used of each:

Neither supplier's smart tariffs are in that table, because I have used none of them. Octopus's EV, solar and heat pump tariffs are in my Octopus tariff guide. EDF sells FreePhase, a time-of-use tariff, plus EV, heat pump and solar tariffs, and its FreePhase trial is the only one of the four lower-standing-charge pilots that takes switchers.

Frequently asked questions

Why did you move your electricity from Octopus to EDF?

Because my Octopus 12-month fix on electricity was ending in September 2026 and would have rolled onto a variable rate, and EDF's Simply Tracker undercut that variable rate. On the July to September 2026 rates at my 2,095 kWh a year in Region H (Southern), the tracker cost £709.89 a year, £12.97 less than Octopus Flexible and £25.04 less than the Ofgem price cap, though £70.13 more than the fix I was leaving. My gas stayed with Octopus on its fix.

Is EDF better than Octopus Energy?

On price it depends which Octopus tariff you compare: on the July to September 2026 rates at my usage, EDF's Simply Tracker cost £12.97 a year less than Octopus Flexible and £70.13 more than the Octopus 12-month fix I left. On loyalty schemes EDF is ahead, because Flextras's free 12-month tastecard is worth £47.88 and Octoplus paid me £9.90 in points from October 2023 to July 2026. Both pay £50 in bill credit to each side of a referral.

Is EDF's Simply Tracker cheaper than a fixed tariff?

It depends when you compare. In July 2026 the Octopus 12-month fix I left was priced below the Ofgem cap and beat the tracker by £70.13 a year at my usage. In October 2026 Octopus's new 12-month fix, listed from 19 October, is 30.56p a kWh in Southern against the 26.47p cap rate Simply Tracker charges, with a higher standing charge too. EDF's listing for the tracker it now sells warns that "Tracker prices will go up significantly on 1 Jan when the Ofgem price cap rises": the tracker passes that rise through as it comes, and a fix charges its premium from the first day.

Sources

• EDF, tracker energy tariffs (opens in new tab): Simply Tracker priced in line with the cap, the 6.85p daily standing-charge discount per fuel, the same in all regions and at any usage, and EDF's description of itself as Britain's biggest generator of zero carbon electricity
• EDF's public tariff API (opens in new tab), read 23 October 2026: the descriptions of Simply Tracker Jan28 (opens in new tab) and Simply Tracker Sep27 (opens in new tab), and both trackers' standing charges against Standard Variable (opens in new tab) in all 14 regions
• EDF, fuel mix (opens in new tab): the April 2025 to March 2026 mix for EDF Energy Customers Limited, the UK averages beside it, and the mix by tariff type
• EDF, refer a friend (opens in new tab): the £50 each side and the four-week timetable
• Ofgem, energy price cap unit rates and standing charges (opens in new tab) and its cap levels for 1 October to 31 December 2026 (opens in new tab): the Region H rates, Direct Debit, single-rate meter
• Octopus's public tariff API (opens in new tab), read 23 October 2026: the Southern Direct Debit rates of the 12-month fix listed from 19 October
• My own EDF account and bills: the July to September rates, the switch, the referral credit and the Flextras sign-up
• The EDF referral page: the July to September comparison against the cap, Octopus Flexible and the fix I left, with its working
• My Octoplus points ledger, exported from my Octopus account on 11 September 2026: the £9.90