Energy has continued to dominate the media agenda during 2007- we are witnessing unparalleled rises in the cost of fuel at a time when the UK's gas supplies are in decline. Against this backdrop we urgently need to take forward new investments in lower carbon technology and deliver the energy to maintain a competitive UK economy.
In this section, we focus on some of the ways we are meeting these challenges and also on areas where we believe we could have done better, which we will seek to build on during 2008.
Planet and Society
The single most important contribution from our business to meet our Planet and Society objective is to invest in lower carbon generation. During 2007, we:
launched a new Groupwide target to reduce our carbon intensity by 50 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels
reduced the carbon intensity of our UK generation business from 710kt CO2 to 686kt CO2/TWh. Our actual emissions rose during 2007 as we generated a larger share of the UK's electricity
created a new business- E.ON Climate & Renewables- to focus specifically on renewable investment within the E.ON Group
started work on a gas-fired CHP station at the Isle of Grain in Kent
prepared to commission the UK's largest dedicated biomass power station at Lockerbie
started planning to enter the Government's carbon capture and storage competition with our proposed power station at Kingsnorth
began planning one of the UK's largest wind farms- the 300MW Humber Gateway
welcomed the Government's proposals to take forward nuclear energy as a low carbon solution for the UK
committed £50 million to the new Energy Technologies Institute over the next 10 years to promote world class research and development
Customers
Our Changing Energy strategy has placed our customers at the heart of what we do. During 2007 we:
completed our transition to the E.ON brand for all of our customers
encouraged our customers to purchase products with environmental features by launching our Go Green and EasyGreen propositions backed by a national advertising campaign
launched our new Sustainable Energy Solutions business to provide business customers with low carbon solutions to meet their carbon reduction targets and energy needs. This can include using a range of onsite microgeneration technologies
provided secure electricity supplies on our networks
improving on our 2006 performance by reducing our customer minutes lost from 76.1 to 74.3 for Central Networks East and 106.4 to 101.7 for Central Networks West - this was despite the very high winds in January and the severe flooding in the summer
asked the opinions of over 40,000 residential and business customers, through a wide variety of research, constantly listening to shape our products, communication and strategic business decisions
delivered a variety of products and services aimed at improving energy efficiency in customers' homes whilst delivering our Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC) obligation, spending over £50 million
continued to address fuel poverty by providing customers with practical and effective support through our CaringEnergy service, our StayWarm tariff and our partnership with Age Concern
Our People
The continued success of our business depends critically on our people. During 2007 we:
aligned all of our people objectives with our Changing Energy strategy so everyone understands their contribution to the business
reassessed, revised and communicated our policies to our people to embed them within the business
invited around 1,800 of our managers to our Changing Energy in Action Day to ensure our people understand their contribution in delivering our strategy
launched the Engineering Academy in direct response to the skills crisis which is affecting most of the engineering sectors within the UK
worked with Global Action Plan to train over 300 Environmental Champions who have launched their 'Saint or Sinner' campaign to reduce our own impact on the environment
When reflecting on our performance during 2007, there are two key areas where we need to improve:
Safety
Our key measure of performance is the Lost Time Injury Frequency (LTIF). This is the number of lost time accidents per million hours worked. The outcome was 3.96 which was above our target of 2.5. In addition, during the past year there have sadly been three fatal incidents involving contractors working on our behalf.
Stakeholder engagement
We held a climate change workshop with our stakeholders during 2007 to discuss our investment decisions. However, it is clear from the response to our proposal to build new cleaner coal generating units at Kingsnorth that there is more we can do to engage key stakeholders in the energy debate
