EDF forced to pull plug on 'zero bill' solar electricity ad

Energy giant EDF has been forced to ditch a radio campaign which suggested that by signing up to its solar power service consumers could at times pay nothing for their electricity, come rain or shine.

The ad, which is part of its “Change is in our Power” campaign devised by Lucky Generals, stated: “Your electricity bill could be nil. Yep, nothing. Because when you install solar panels and a battery with EDF, you don’t just get electricity when it’s sunny, you can store it for a rainy day too. EDF, change is in our power. For potential zero pound bills, buy ten to twelve of our solar panels, a battery, and join Empower Exclusive […]”.

But seven listeners rifled off complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority challenged whether the claim “you don’t just get electricity when it’s sunny, you can store it for a rainy day too” was misleading because they believed the solar panels and battery would not generate and store enough power to provide electricity during the winter months.

In its defence, EDF insisted the ad claimed that electricity generated while it was sunny could be stored for use on another, less sunny, day. There was nothing in the claim that implied the electricity stored would be sufficient to meet months’ worth of usage during the darker months, and it would not expect consumers to understand the claim in that way since it would not be credible.

The claim was that the power generated on one day could be stored and used on a different day, which was factually correct, EDF argued.

The firm provided figures which it said demonstrated that even after taking into account daily usage, the panels and battery would be able to store surplus energy that could be used on a different day that should be sufficient to meet the overwhelming majority of that consumer’s usage on a separate day, even if the panels did not generate anything at all on that separate day.

However, the ASA considered consumers would understand that if they bought 10 to 12 EDF solar panels and a battery, surplus energy generated by the panels on sunny days could be stored in the battery for use on days when it was too dark for the panels to generate enough power to meet their needs.

In the context of the ad, it considered consumers would understand the phrase “rainy day” as a general period of time where the sun shone less. In that context we considered consumers would understand from the ad that any given monthly electricity bill could be reduced to nil, since any short fall in power generated by the panels on darker days would be met by the energy stored in the battery.

The watchdog ruled that while it was possible there would be days when an energy deficit could be balanced out by the power stored in the battery, that power was unlikely to be sufficient to balance a consumer’s usage, such that they had nothing to pay.

It was therefore unlikely that any given bill, outside of the sunnier months of the year, would be reduced to nil as a result of the advertised tariff.

While EDF said the claim had been intended literally as meaning that energy stored in the battery one day could be used on the next consecutive day, that had not been included in the ad.

Furthermore, the claims had been based on calculations that used average figures, taken from Ofgem and an industry standard calculation, the former based on households of one to three people. They were therefore not necessarily representative of what a consumer would achieve. That information had also not been included in the ad either.

The ASA added: “We considered that both of those pieces of information were material to consumers’ understanding of the ad and so should have been made clear. For those reasons we concluded the ad was likely to mislead.” Banning the ad, the watchdog warned EDF over its future conduct.

The move comes just a fortnight after rival Scottish Power was rapped on the knuckles by the ASA after an ad that featured architect and TV presenter George Clarke misled viewers into thinking they were watching a TV programme.