The challenges of supplying the quantity of power needed by the UK on a consistent and reliable basis are well documented. We believe that it is important to have a wide range of different methods of power production online, so that we don't have all our eggs in one basket. We are investing heavily in research into new technologies, but the reality is that many of the renewable and smaller scale generation methods do not yet provide the quantity of power we need to generate. Our supplies also need to be affordable for our customers.

Two areas that have sparked much public debate involve plans that we're involved in. The first is the nuclear debate and the second is our planned cleaner coal-fired plant at Kingsnorth in Kent. We have to consider the context: in the next 15 years, around a third of the UK's current energy generation facilities will have to close.

The nuclear debate

In January 2008, the Government confirmed its belief that new nuclear power stations should have a role to play in the country's future energy mix, alongside other low carbon sources. We had been actively involved in the months of planning and consultation that preceded the announcement and have already expressed an interest in building the next generation of nuclear plants in the UK. Our nuclear development team has been working to ensure we can fulfil our Changing Energy strategy of having nuclear as part of a diverse low carbon generation portfolio.

It was important to us that the public consultation process was as thorough as possible. Public meetings were held in nine different cities and invitees were chosen randomly from the electoral register. In all, about 900 people contributed to these meetings and were able to air any concerns they might have had and any member of the public was able to make a written submission.

While all this was happening, we started discussions with some of the world's leading suppliers of nuclear reactors. We've selected Areva and Siemens as partners to build the 1600MW European Pressurised-water Reactor (EPR) for nuclear new build projects in the UK. The EPR is a technology with which E.ON is very familiar as its design arose out of collaboration between these suppliers and German and French utilities. The selection of the reactor design will also allow early ordering of long-lead equipment, which will be beneficial to maintaining our schedule. This reactor design is already licensed and is under construction in both Finland and France, which should provide valuable experience for the new build in the UK.

The Government has begun a Strategic Siting Assessment, which should identify sites on which it will support new nuclear build before the end of 2009. We have a specialist team working on the project, including members of other E.ON Group companies. They have high levels of expertise and experience in design, licensing, operations, waste management and decommissioning. These specialist reactor designer and utilities skills are vital during project development to convince the nuclear safety and environmental regulatory authorities, which are thoroughly inspecting the design, construction and operational plans, that public safety is assured throughout the proposed reactors' life. The regulatory authorities are expected to issue a generic design acceptance for a number of reactor designs during 2011. This exhaustive process includes appropriate public engagement exercises, so that interested stakeholders can understand the extent of the work undertaken in this highly technical area.

Business Resilience & Security

Managing the security risks of our business forms an important priority in our efforts to create a safe and secure environment for our people, as well as helping us to be a good neighbour to those who live close to our operations. We have in place a robust disaster recovery and business continuity process to ensure that if our operations are affected, we are able to recover and get them back on as quickly as possible to maintain a constant energy supply.

To keep up with the growing risks we face, we have formed a specialist security risk management team. In addition to their day-to-day problem solving, they also strategically manage issues concerning physical and personal security, business continuity and emergency management, pandemic planning and crime. Between January and December 2007, the team handled a total of 1,092 incidents across the E.ON UK business, further highlighting the need for increased visibility of security and control measures.

Our company policies ensure security remains central to the way we conduct our business. A programme of minimum standards, based on the principle of eliminating crime, has been put in place.

To acknowledge our responsibilities as the provider of a crucial national service, we have also put in place an incident management and business continuity strategy. This meets the requirements of the recently introduced British Standard 25999 and is another highpoint of the progress made during 2007.

At a national level, we manage security risks to our business through our Security Task Group which our Head of Business Resilience chairs. Through this group we've been engaged in a risk assessment of our electricity distribution network and have completed a programme of work to apply the agreed standards.

Security is a key requirement of our corporate responsibility programme. An important aspect of our business resilience is that we need to build trust and confidence through genuine alliances with both the police and the public. A good example of this was how our participation in a local residents' committee meeting in Cheshire was able to help allay the group´s fears about the security of a nearby gas storage site that we were building.