EDF Empower Tracker review (August 2026)
The price cap with 10p a unit off in the early hours and 10p added across the late afternoon, and no standing charge.
Updated for August 2026
Tariff snapshot
The important details in one place
- Current tariff issue
- Empower Tracker Exclusive 12m v2
- EDF_EMPOWER_TRACKER_EX_SEG_12M_V2_HH
- Price changes
- By time band
- Scheduled price periods move with the linked standard tariff
- Against the price cap
- Choose a location
- Compares today’s regional average unit rate with the applicable cap rate
- Estimated annual cost
- Choose a location
- Shown after an electricity region is selected
Key tariff facts
- Scheduled price periods move with the linked standard tariff
- 12-month fixed term
- Compatible smart meter required
- Electricity tariff
- Regional unit rates and standing charges
The short answer
Who EDF Empower Tracker is most likely to work for
Empower Tracker is a sharper tariff than its name suggests, and the absent standing charge is the part worth taking seriously for a genuinely low-usage household. Whether it beats another tariff still depends on the live regional rates and how much use falls in each band.
The name is the problem. This tracks the price cap, not the wholesale market, and anyone arriving from a wholesale-linked tracker will find it does not move the way they expect. Judge it as a standard variable tariff with a night discount, a teatime penalty and no daily charge, because that is what it is.
Empower Tracker takes EDF’s standard variable rate and bends it: 10p a unit comes off in a three-hour window in the early hours, and 10p goes on across the late afternoon. Everything else in the day is charged at the standard rate.
It also carries no standing charge at all, which is unusual enough to change the arithmetic entirely for a low-usage home. The prices above are the live ones for the region you have selected.
In its favour
- No standing charge at all
- A clear 10p discount in the early-hours window
- No exit fees despite the twelve-month term
- Backed by zero-carbon electricity
Against it
- 10p uplift across the late-afternoon peak
- Discount window is short and in the middle of the night
- Tracks the price cap, not the wholesale market — the name misleads
- Electricity only
How it works
How EDF Empower Tracker sets its prices
The base rate is EDF’s standard variable rate, which moves with the Ofgem price cap — so the tariff reprices when the cap changes, quarterly, rather than daily or half-hourly. This is the point on which EDF’s "Tracker" tariffs differ most from tariffs of the same name elsewhere.
On top of that base, a fixed 10p per kWh discount applies in the early-hours window and a fixed 10p uplift applies across the late-afternoon peak. Because both adjustments are in pence rather than percentages, they are worth proportionally more when the cap is low and less when it is high.
There is no daily standing charge. On a typical tariff the standing charge is the larger part of a small bill, so removing it favours households that use little electricity and matters much less to households that use a lot.
EDF backs the electricity with zero-carbon generation, and there are no exit fees despite the twelve-month agreement.
Things to watch
The main trade-offs
The discounted window is short and sits in the middle of the night. Capturing it realistically means a timer, a battery or a car charger rather than a change of habit.
The 10p uplift lands squarely on the hours most households cook and heat in. A home that cannot avoid it will lose more in the peak than it gains overnight.
Despite the name, this does not track the wholesale market. It tracks the price cap, so it will not fall on a windy weekend the way a wholesale-linked tariff does.
No standing charge is a real benefit, but it is a fixed-size one. It is worth the most to the smallest users and can be outweighed by the peak uplift in a heavy-using home.
Live tariff data
EDF Empower Tracker import prices for your area
Electricity rates and standing charges differ by distribution region. Enter your postcode or choose your electricity region before local figures are shown. These are the selected import product’s rates. A paired export schedule is shown only when the exact configured export product is also open for this region; the site never guesses a match from a shared family name.
Practical advice
Getting the most out of EDF Empower Tracker
Put something on a timer for the early-hours window
The discount is worth nothing to a sleeping house that uses no electricity. A dishwasher, a washing machine or an immersion heater on a delay turns the window into an actual saving.
Treat the late afternoon as the expensive part of the day
Every unit in that window costs 10p more than standard. Moving one electric-oven meal a day out of it is worth more than anything you can do to the rest of the tariff.
Work out what the missing standing charge is worth to you
It is a fixed saving of roughly the daily charge times 365, whatever you use. Compare that against what the peak uplift will cost you across a year, and the answer decides the tariff.
Household fit
Who EDF Empower Tracker might be good for
The right answer depends on your equipment, routine and tolerance for changing prices—not just how much electricity you use.
Likely to suit
- Low-usage households, for whom the absent standing charge is the biggest single saving available
- Homes with a battery or a timed car charger that can fill up inside the early-hours window
- Households already out or asleep through the late-afternoon peak
- Anyone who wants time-of-use pricing without half-hourly volatility
Less likely to suit
- Families cooking and washing through the late afternoon and early evening
- Anyone expecting the daily movement of a wholesale-linked tracker — this is not that tariff
- Households with no way to use electricity in the middle of the night
- Heavy users, where the peak uplift can outweigh both the discount and the missing standing charge
Before switching
Check the requirements and what will affect the result
What you need
- A smart meter, since the discount and uplift windows have to be billed separately
- A twelve-month agreement, with no exit fees
- Electricity only — gas is priced on a separate EDF tariff
- Availability and eligibility confirmed by EDF for your address during sign-up
What drives what you pay
- How much you can shift into the three-hour discounted window in the early hours — a narrow target, and the whole of the tariff’s upside
- How much you cannot keep out of the late-afternoon window, where every unit costs 10p more than standard
- Your total consumption, because with no standing charge a light user starts the year several tens of pounds ahead of a standard tariff before using anything
- Ofgem’s price cap, which sets the base rate every quarter
Match the tariff to your home
Your largest electrical loads can change the answer
A specialist tariff can be better aligned with one large device, but its eligibility and expensive periods still matter. These are comparisons to make, not automatic recommendations.
If you have an EV
An EV tariff may be simpler if most of your flexible electricity is car charging. Intelligent Octopus Go schedules compatible cars or chargers; Octopus Go and EDF Go Electric use fixed overnight windows.
If you have solar without a battery
The import tariff and the rate paid for exported electricity are separate decisions. A straightforward export tariff can be more useful than a peak-weighted battery tariff when generation is exported as it happens.
If you have solar and a home battery
EDF Empower Tracker already targets a home with storage. Compare who controls the battery, the import/export bands and device compatibility rather than looking at one headline rate.
If you have a heat pump
A heat-pump tariff may align its cheaper periods with space and hot-water heating. Whether it wins depends on insulation, controls and how much heat can move away from expensive periods.
Alternatives
Other smart tariffs from Octopus and EDF to compare
These are other smart-tariff comparisons from the two suppliers, not a claim that every option suits the same household.
Octopus Tracker
The names match and the mechanisms do not. Octopus Tracker follows the wholesale market and reprices every day, so it can fall a long way below the cap or rise above it. Empower Tracker follows the Ofgem price cap and reprices quarterly, with a fixed discount and uplift attached to set hours. If you are comparing the two, you are comparing a market-linked tariff with a cap-linked one, not two versions of the same thing.
Review Octopus TrackerEDF Simply Tracker
The flat sibling. Simply Tracker is the same cap-following base with no time bands at all, a discounted standing charge, and gas available alongside — but it does carry an exit fee. Take Simply Tracker if you cannot use the early hours and want the standing charge discount instead; take Empower if you can.
Review EDF Simply TrackerEDF Standard Variable
Empower is Standard Variable with the edges bent and the standing charge removed. For a low user who avoids the late afternoon it is clearly better; for a heavy user who cooks at six it is clearly worse. The base rate is identical, so the whole decision is about when you use electricity and how much.
Review EDF Standard VariableOther EDF Energy tariff reviews
Browse every other EDF Energy tariff covered on Energy Review. Availability, eligibility and price structure are explained on each review.
Regional comparison
How prices differ across Great Britain
EDF Empower Tracker unit rate and standing charge by region
The average price per unit on 2026-08-12, including VAT. The table also shows the daily standing charge.
Hover a region for its figure, or select one to load its prices.
Tap a region to load its prices.
| Region | Per kWh | Standing charge per day |
|---|---|---|
| East Midlands | 25.10p | 0.0p |
| North East England | 25.22p | 0.0p |
| Yorkshire | 25.30p | 0.0p |
| West Midlands | 25.33p | 0.0p |
| Southern Scotland | 25.85p | 0.0p |
| North West England | 26.13p | 0.0p |
| South Wales | 26.33p | 0.0p |
| London | 26.35p | 0.0p |
| Eastern England | 26.38p | 0.0p |
| South West England | 26.39p | 0.0p |
| Southern England | 26.42p | 0.0p |
| Northern Scotland | 26.42p | 0.0p |
| South East England | 26.67p | 0.0p |
| Merseyside and North Wales | 27.66p | 0.0p |
Northern Ireland has a separate electricity market and is not covered by these regions.
How to switch
Moving to EDF Empower Tracker
- 1
A smart meter is required, and EDF will arrange one if needed — the tariff cannot bill a discounted window without half-hourly data.
- 2
Apply directly through EDF and allow the supplier to confirm the product-specific eligibility and activation timetable.
- 3
There are no exit fees. If the peak uplift turns out to catch more of your evening than you expected, you can leave without a charge.
Frequently asked questions
Does this tariff follow wholesale prices?
No. It follows Ofgem’s price cap, which changes quarterly. The discount and uplift are fixed amounts in pence applied at set hours on top of that. A tariff that follows the wholesale market reprices daily or half-hourly; this one does not.
Is there really no standing charge?
EDF publishes a standing charge of zero for this tariff, and has done across every period in its own rate feed. That makes the tariff unusually good value for a low-usage home, where the daily charge is normally the larger part of the bill.
When do the discount and the uplift apply?
The band schedule above shows the current times and prices for your region. The discount runs for three hours in the early hours of the morning; the uplift covers the late-afternoon peak.
Can I get gas on this tariff?
No, it is electricity only. EDF’s Simply Tracker covers both fuels if you want gas priced on the same basis.