As Britain’s cold snap continues under crystal blue skies few places can be as chilly as the comms offices of the major power firms – particularly EDF and nPower.
Both are blighted by negative publicity, with scarcely a word in their defence. Not that it is easy managing bad news in a time of global financial uncertainty and turbulent energy prices.
EDF’s battle to preserve good will for its flagship £18bn Hinckley Point nuclear power project has faltered for months. Yesterday’s news (7/3/16) that finance director Thomas Piquemal has quit, so soon after project director Chris Bakken left, is hardly helpful.
Meanwhile, nPower confirmed an eye-watering 2,500 job cuts at its annual results meeting today (8/3/16). That’s more than a fifth of the beleaguered firm’s UK workforce, widely attributed to energy regulator Ofgem’s biggest ever £26m fine last year for inaccurate billing and complaint handling, an IT fiasco that cost it an estimated 200,000 customers.
Countering bad news is not easy. But keeping quiet and hoping the storm passes is no recipe for building customer confidence. Communicating honestly, openly and often is a much better bet. And that demands forethought.
Let’s face it, opponents are bound to have plenty to say. The union reaction to nPower’s attack on the workforce was predictable and came before any official announcement from the company: “a kick in the teeth”, “a devastating blow” and “months of uncertainty”. nPower have commented today but why wait for the results meeting to say anything? It's too little, too late!
In today’s fast-moving multi-media world, where social media captures and broadcasts emotional reactions to bad news in a nano-second, having responses readily to hand is essential. It’s the sort of thing reputations are built on, or broken by.
And so to EDF. For months rumour and speculation has dogged what is likely to be the world’s costliest power project and the UK’s largest single power plant, producing 7% of all our electricity by 2025. But there’s the rub. It’s all “jam tomorrow”. It has been heard so often that the public is losing enthusiasm, particularly in the south-west, where a potential 25,000 jobs are linked to its construction.
Monday’s news about Piquemal knocked a whopping 8.2% off EDF early share price. Hardly surprising on top of Bakken’s departure, those protracted Chinese whispers about funding (China General Nuclear Power Corporation will stump up a third, but who pays the rest?) and French union officials fearing the technology is “not yet proven.”
Given Piquemal’s track-record of almost beligerant insistence that the project lacks financial sense, maybe his departure is easing the way for the long-awaited go-ahead. Indeed, political imperative could trump financial prudence if a deeper political commitment was agreed when prime minister Cameron met president Hollande of France, EDF’s principal owner.
Whatever the final outcome, EDF and nPower are squandering corporate credibility on an almost daily basis. Positive, proactive responses are needed to seize a fairer share of air time. But without something interesting, relevant and memorable for the right reasons, there can seem little point trying.
Maybe what those chilly energy sector comms offices need is the warming glow of some creative communications planning. But then again Spring is on its way – so maybe it’s a task to leave for the next cold snap?
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