The company increased earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to £903m up 3 per cent on the first half of 2012.
EDF Energy said that it had invested £560m in its existing nuclear and coal stations, new generation capacity, gas storage and in its customer supply business.
It also clarified that it had “paid £200 million in corporation tax, investment in our employees’ pension schemes and other similar commitments”, following unproven claims of tax avoidance earlier this month levelled at the company earlier this month in the House of Commons by Tory MP Charlie Elphicke.
EDF Energy said that sales were higher due to higher wholesale prices and the higher volumes of gas supplied by its B2C business “during the cold winter”.
It said that this “was partly offset by lower output from our nuclear fleet than in the first half of 2012 and that it was “expected due to planned maintenance in the first six months of this year”.
In a statement EDF Energy, said: “Since the beginning of the year, we have invested £560m back in our business, which will help keep the lights on in future with reliable, secure and low carbon energy. We have also succeeded in restraining our operational costs. We have continued to deliver on our commitment to fair prices by offering the lowest standard variable prices of the main suppliers for 26 out of 28 weeks this year.”
The company is still negotiating a strike price with the government for its planned investment in the Somerset Hinkley Point C proposed nuclear plant. The chancellor George Osborne has recently shown his backing for the project by writing to EDF Energy’s parent company EDF Group to express his support.
EDF Group, owner of the UK arm of the energy provider, announced that it had increased its profit before tax to â¬9.7 billion (£8.4 billion) up 6.9% outstripping analyst expectations of between flat profit growth and 3 per cent.
In the US, EDF Group has also agreed with its partner Exelon on an exit strategy from their joint venture CENG.
CENG currently operates five nuclear plants in the United States with a total capacity of 3.9 GW.