A radio ad for energy giant EDF, part of its Change is in our Power campaign, was heard on 7 September 2024.
It 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 10 to 12 of our solar panels, a battery, and join Empower Exclusive.”
Seven complainants contacted the ASA about the ad. They 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.
EDF said the ad claimed that electricity generated while it was sunny could be stored for use on another, less sunny, day. It said there was nothing in the claim that implied the electricity stored would be sufficient to meet months’ worth of usage, and it would not expect consumers to understand the claim in that way, since it would not be a credible claim.
It maintained that the claim was that the power generated on one day could be stored and used on a different day – and it said this was “factually correct”.
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EDF provided figures that it claimed 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.
But the ASA took a different view. It said consumers would understand from the claims in the ad that if they bought 10-12 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 during which the sun shone less. In that context, the ASA considered consumers would understand from the ad that any given monthly electricity bill could be reduced to nil, since any shortfall in power generated by the panels on darker days would be met by the energy stored in the battery.
The ASA said the ad must not appear again in the form complained of. It told EDF to ensure that future ads made clear the basis of any claims, where the omission of that information was likely to mislead.
