E.ON comment on Ofgem energy efficiency announcement

By AndrewBarrow Responding to the publication of Ofgem figures on delivery of the Energy Companies Obligation (ECO), Don Leiper, Director of Energy Efficiency at E.ON, said: "We have worked extremely hard in recent years to complete all elements of the previous CERT and CESP obligations and these figures prove we are leading the field when it comes to delivering the ECO obligation, helping tens of thousands of people around the country to control their energy use and reduce their fuel bills.

"A lot has been said recently about the cost of energy efficiency schemes like ECO and the impact they have on customers' bills. It is true that large parts of what makes up an energy bill are largely out of our control and are rising but that doesn't mean we can't manage those costs effectively - and we have done so with ECO whilst still delivering real help to customers.

"Energy efficiency schemes like this bring real benefits to communities and we should not lose sight of the fact that across the country there are hundreds of thousands of families living in homes that are in desperate need of improvement.

"Now is not the time to scale back on energy efficiency. It's vital that we continue to improve the fabric of our homes and reduce the amount of energy our customers need to use, but we need to do that in the most efficient, cost effective way for all customers. That is why we have publicly called for ECO to remain in place but in a simplified form and funded through general taxation rather than through individual energy bills so the costs of these schemes fall more fairly on those able to fund them."

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Notes to editors:

• E.ON is one of the UK's leading power and gas companies - generating electricity, retailing power and gas, developing gas storage and undertaking gas and oil exploration and production. It is part of the E.ON group, one of the world's largest investor-owned power and gas companies. E.ON employs around 12,000 people in the UK and more than 72,000 worldwide;


• In the UK, E.ON supplies power and gas to around five million domestic, small and medium-sized enterprise and industrial. E.ON also offers innovative energy services and technologies tailored to meet its customers' needs, and is helping customers become energy efficient by encouraging them to insulate their homes, moderate their energy usage and even generate their own power;


• E.ON's generation portfolio includes world-class gas-, coal- and biomass-fired power stations. E.ON is a market leader in combined heat and power (CHP), and is one of the UK's leading green generators;


• One of the many ways E.ON leads the energy industry is through its commitment to market liquidity and transparency as evidenced by its actions on the day-ahead UK power markets including the N2EX auction. E.ON was the first company to sign a gross-bidding agreement with N2EX.