Updated October 2026. You pick one supplier (fournisseur), give your meter number, and the supplier does the rest: with a Linky meter, power is usually on within 24 hours. Every residential contract is sans engagement, so you can leave any day for free, and switching never cuts your supply. EDF's regulated Tarif Bleu costs 20.01 c€/kWh plus €190.32 a year (Base, 6 kVA, since 1 August 2026). The regulated gas tariff was abolished on 1 July 2023. To compare, use the Médiateur's official comparator, which lists every offer.
Key takeaways
- Sign with one supplier and give the PDL/PRM; you never register with Enedis or GRDF yourself.
- With Linky, activation is remote and usually done within 24 hours for about €11 to €14.
- Contracts are sans engagement: no exit fee, no notice, and switching never interrupts supply.
- Tarif Bleu: 20.01 c€/kWh + €190.32/year (6 kVA, August 2026). No regulated gas tariff since 1 July 2023.
- Network and taxes are about two thirds of any bill and identical for every supplier.
- Compare on comparateur-offres.energie-info.fr, the only comparator that lists every offer.
How do you set up electricity and gas when you move in?
Setting up electricity and gas means signing one contract with one supplier, online in 5 to 10 minutes. The supplier handles everything with the grid operator. No registration with Enedis or GRDF is needed, and none is even possible for a household. The same suppliers sell both energies, except a few electricity-only ones such as Enercoop, Primeo and La Bellenergie.
- Step 1: Pick a supplier and an offer on the official comparator (see below).
- Step 2: Give the meter's delivery point: the 14-digit PDL/PRM for electricity or the PCE for gas, shown on a previous bill or on the Linky or Gazpar display.
- Step 3: Give your move-in date, your address and an IBAN for the direct debit. EDF's direct debit expects a French or EU bank account.
- Step 4: The supplier requests the mise en service. With Linky it is remote and usually done within 24 hours.
The activation fee is set by the grid operator, so it is the same at every supplier: about €11 to €14 for a standard Linky activation (regulated grid fee, October 2026), and €22.55 for a standard gas activation (Kelwatt, August 2026). An older, non-Linky meter needs a technician visit, typically 5 to 10 working days, or 24 to 48 hours with a paid express option. Check the rules on energie-info.fr, the Médiateur's information site.
Note the meter reading on day one
What should tenants do when moving in and moving out?
Tenants deal only with their supplier, at both ends of a lease. Enedis and GRDF never need a call from you. The one trap is moving house: a move is not a switch. You close the contract at the old address yourself and open a new one at the new address, while a switch at the same address closes the old contract for you.
| Moment | What you do | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Move-in, Linky meter | Sign with any supplier, give the PDL/PRM and move-in date | Remote activation, usually within 24 hours, about €11 to €14 |
| Move-in, older meter | Same, plus be home for the technician | 5 to 10 working days, or 24 to 48 hours express at a higher fee |
| During the tenancy | Check that monthly instalments match real Linky readings | Linky sends real readings monthly; refuse under-estimated instalments |
| Move-out | Tell your supplier the departure date | Closing index read remotely; final bill within about 4 weeks |
| New address | Open a new contract there, with any supplier | Treated as a new activation, not a switch |
Opening the contract a few days before the keys handover costs nothing extra, because the supplier activates it on the date you choose. Moving out needs no appointment with a Linky meter: the closing index is read remotely, and the final bill follows within about 4 weeks.
Can you switch supplier without a power cut or an exit fee?
Switching supplier in France never interrupts supply. A switch is a database transfer between suppliers and the grid operator; the wires, the meter and the electrons do not change. The Médiateur's site energie-info.fr says it in one line: you risk no cut. Every residential contract is also sans engagement, so leaving costs €0 and needs no notice, even on a fixed-price offer.
- Sign with the new supplier online (PDL/PRM plus IBAN).
- The new supplier notifies Enedis or GRDF and closes your old contract. You cancel nothing yourself.
- The switch takes effect within about 15 days at most, often 1 to 4 days with Linky. A 14-day cooling-off period applies to online, phone and doorstep contracts.
- The old supplier sends a closing bill within about 4 weeks, on a real Linky index.
You can also go back to the regulated Tarif Bleu at any time, for free (the réversibilité rule of the loi NOME). Few households use their freedom: the CRE observatory counted 55.2% of residential electricity sites still on the Tarif Bleu in Q1 2026, although about 2,000 households a daywere leaving it (232,000 switches in the quarter). The only price risk sits with the supplier: an indexed offer can change its price with one month's written notice, and you can leave the same day.
What people in France report
- ○ When switching pays: MoneyVox's monthly top five, built on the Médiateur comparator, puts the best fixed offer about €76 a year under the Tarif Bleu at 2,400 kWh and about €340 at 10,800 kWh. Readers conclude it pays above roughly 3,000 kWh, re-compared yearly. (MoneyVox, January 2026)
- − Staying on the Tarif Bleu: An analysis of EDF reviews finds 57% of Tarif Bleu customers have never compared offers. Staying put costs them 10% to 20% more than the best alternatives, for the same wires and the same meter. (fournisseurs-electricite.com, May 2026)
- ○ Retailers after ARENH: Forum advice shifted in 2026 toward suppliers that own production or belong to a local utility, such as GEG, Gaz de Bordeaux and Alterna. Vattenfall's July 2026 exit is the cautionary tale people cite. (varenergie.fr, June 2026)
Paraphrased from public posts, each dated and linked. A small sample, not a representative survey.
Which comparator lists every energy offer?
The official comparator is comparateur-offres.energie-info.fr, run by the Médiateur national de l'énergie, an independent public authority, with CRE data. It carries no advertising, has no commercial partnerships and takes no payment from suppliers. In October 2026 it listed more than 70 electricity offers and more than 25 gas offers, including suppliers that refuse to pay commercial comparators.
Commercial sites work differently. Selectra, JeChange, Kelwatt, lesfurets and papernest earn referral fees from partner suppliers, and their rankings list partner offers only. Offers from Enercoop and several local utilities never appear there. Their price data is still useful, and this guide cites it, but the official tool is the only complete list. MoneyVox builds its monthly cheapest-offer ranking on it.
Enter your real annual consumption, shown on any past bill or in your Linky customer area, and your subscribed power in kVA. The ranking then prices the abonnement and the kWh together, which matters: a low kWh price with a high standing charge can lose for a small flat. Our energy price research shows that effect with real October 2026 offers.
Which suppliers and tariffs exist in France?
EDF is the only supplier of the regulated Tarif Bleuon Enedis territory, about 95% of France. Everything else, including EDF's own Zen and Vert offers, is a market offer (offre de marché). For gas, every offer is a market offer, because the regulated gas tariff was abolished on 1 July 2023.
Who sells energy in 2026
The large alternatives are Engie (the former gas incumbent), TotalEnergies, Octopus Energy (about 750,000 customers) and Plenitude (Eni). Smaller suppliers often lead on price: Primeo, OHM Énergie, Alpiq, ekWateur, Mint Énergie and La Bellenergie. Local utilities such as Gaz de Bordeaux and GEG sell nationally too. Enercoop, Primeo and La Bellenergie sell electricity only.
The 2026 shake-out
- Vattenfall France left household retail in July 2026. Its roughly 175,000 customers moved automatically to Alterna énergie, a cooperative of about 50 local utilities steered by Sorégies.
- Wekiwi was absorbed by Plenitude on 2 June 2026 and no longer sells under its own name.
- The ARENH mechanism, which gave suppliers cheap nuclear power, ended on 31 December 2025, raising costs for small web-only suppliers.
- Primeo is still trading and had the lowest kWh price in October 2026, despite forum talk of its 2022-23 difficulties. OHM Énergie also survived 2022 and now rates 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot.
Offer types
- Prix fixe: the kWh price before tax is frozen for one to three years. Taxes and network charges still move, and you can still leave at any time.
- Prix indexé: the price tracks the Tarif Bleu at a stated discount, for example 8% below it at TotalEnergies.
- Offre verte: backed by guarantees of origin (garanties d'origine). The ADEME VertVolt label, graded engagé and très engagé, marks offers that go beyond certificates alone.
- Base, heures creuses or Tempo: one price all day, a cheaper night rate, or the Tempo day-colour tariff with 300 cheap blue days and 22 expensive red days a year.
Who supplies the regulated tariff outside Enedis territory?
About 150 local distribution zones (entreprises locales de distribution, ELD) cover about 5% of France and 3 million people. In these zones the grid belongs to a local utility, the local utility sells the Tarif Bleu, and EDF is not the default. Fewer national suppliers serve these zones, so check availability by address on the official comparator.
| Territory | Grid operator | Tarif Bleu seller | Market offers |
|---|---|---|---|
| About 95% of France | Enedis (EDF subsidiary, separate management) | EDF | Every national supplier |
| Strasbourg | Strasbourg Électricité Réseaux | ÉS (local utility) | Fewer alternatives admitted |
| Grenoble | GreenAlp | GEG | ekWateur and Plenitude serve the zone |
| Metz and 138 communes | Réséda | UEM | ekWateur is the main alternative |
| Vienne (Poitiers area) | SRD | Sorégies | Sorégies also sells a local green offer |
| Other ELD zones | Séolis and Geredis (Deux-Sèvres), SICAE (Somme), Gedia (Ardèche), Vialis (Colmar) | The local utility | Check by address |
| Gas, about 96% of France | GRDF (Régaz around Bordeaux) | None: abolished 1 July 2023 | Every gas supplier; Engie is the historic one |
Some local utilities sell nationwide in return: GEG through its Yéli brand and Gaz de Bordeaux both take customers anywhere on Enedis territory. Alterna énergie is the joint vehicle about 50 local utilities use to sell outside their home zones.
What does energy cost in France?
The regulated Tarif Bleu Base option costs 20.01 c€/kWh including tax, plus a standing charge of €190.32 a year (€15.86 a month) on a 6 kVA meter, under the barème of 1 August 2026 (CRE deliberation 2026-147). At the 4,287 kWh reference profile of a two-person flat without electric heating, that is €1,048 a year. The price was 19.40 c€/kWh before that date, so the August revision added about 3%, driven by a 3.04% rise in the TURPE 7 network charge.
The standing charge follows your subscribed power: about €145.56 a year at 3 kVA and €238.56 at 9 kVA. The heures creuses option costs 21.42 c€ at peak and 15.89 c€ off-peak, with a €192.59 standing charge at 6 kVA. The best market offers sat 10% to 13% below the Tarif Bleu in October 2026; our price research works out the annual bills.
Gas has no regulated tariff. The CRE publishes a monthly benchmark instead, the prix repère de vente de gaz: 14.557 c€/kWh with a €360.79 standing charge for gas heating in October 2026, rising to 15.76 c€/kWh in November (+8.3%), according to service-public.fr. Gas prices were up about 41% year on year, so a fixed gas offer signed now, such as EDF's Avantage Gaz 2 ans at 13.42 c€/kWh, sits below the benchmark.
How do you read your bill and meter?
About two thirds of a French electricity bill is network charges and taxes, identical whichever supplier you choose. Suppliers compete only on the energy supply part, roughly a third of the bill. The table shows each line as it appears on a 2026 bill.
| Bill line | Share of the bill | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Energy supply (fourniture) | About a third | The only part your supplier sets |
| Network charge (TURPE 7) | 25% to 30% | Paid to Enedis and RTE; +3.04% on 1 August 2026 |
| Accise (excise, ex-CSPE) | About 12% | €30.62/MWh since 1 August 2026; applies to fixed offers too |
| CTA | 1% to 2% | 15% of the fixed network charge since 1 February 2026 (was 21.93%) |
| TVA (VAT) | 16% to 17% | 20% on consumption and, since 1 August 2025, on the standing charge too (was 5.5%) |
Linky and Gazpar send real readings, so your bill can follow real use. Many suppliers still bill a smoothed monthly amount (mensualisation) and settle the gap once a year (régularisation). If the instalment was set too low at sign-up, the twelfth-month bill can be a shock. Adjust the instalment in your customer area from month one, or ask for billing on real readings. If a Linky meter stops transmitting, estimates pile up; a written complaint, then the Médiateur, is the route out.
What people in France report
- − Linky catch-up bills: Customers on the 60 Millions de Consommateurs forum describe Linky meters that stopped sending readings, months of estimated EDF bills, then one demand for the whole gap. A referral to the Médiateur was what unblocked their files. (60 Millions forum, via papernest, February 2026)
- ○ Smoothed monthly billing: After twelfth-month regularisation shocks at Octopus and EDF, forum users advise raising the monthly instalment yourself from month one in the customer area, or asking to be billed on real Linky readings. (mon-habitat-durable.fr, forum synthesis, May 2026)
- + Linky and bill doubling: Guides that collect forum disputes find Linky draws about five times fewer billing complaints than old meters. The roughly €30 Enedis meter check, refunded if the meter is faulty, usually finds the cause inside the home. (fournisseurs-electricite.com, December 2023)
Paraphrased from public posts, each dated and linked. A small sample, not a representative survey.
What help exists if you cannot pay your energy bill?
The chèque énergie is the main support: an annual voucher of €48 to €277, averaging about €153, based on the household income on your tax return. It works with every licensed supplier, and also for heating oil, wood, LPG and renovation work. Details are on chequeenergie.gouv.fr. The old social tariffs, TPN and TSS, were abolished in 2018; a site still selling a "tarif social" is out of date.
| Income per UC | Under 1 UC | 1 to 2 UC | 2 UC or more |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under €5,700 | €194 | €240 | €277 |
| €5,700 to €6,800 | €146 | €176 | €202 |
| €6,800 to €7,850 | €98 | €113 | €126 |
| €7,850 to €11,000 | €48 | €63 | €76 |
Other protections stack on top. The Fonds de Solidarité Logement of your département, reached through the CCAS or social services, can pay arrears. Suppliers must offer a payment plan. No home can be cut off during the trêve hivernale, from 1 November to 31 March, and supply cannot be cut while a Médiateur case is open. France has no prepaid retail tariff: Linky's prepayment mode is a hardship arrangement on a normal contract, not a product you can buy.
Setting Up Electricity and Gas: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you set up electricity and gas when you move into a French home?
You choose one supplier (fournisseur), sign a contract and give the meter's delivery point: the 14-digit PDL/PRM for electricity or the PCE for gas. The supplier then asks Enedis or GRDF for the mise en service. You never register with the grid operator yourself. With a Linky meter, activation is remote and usually done within 24 hours for a regulated fee of about €11 to €14. An older meter needs a technician visit, typically 5 to 10 working days.
Will my electricity be cut off if I switch supplier?
No. Switching is a data transfer between suppliers and the grid operator; the wires, the meter and the electricity stay the same, and energie-info.fr states plainly that there is no risk of a cut. Your new supplier informs Enedis or GRDF and closes your old contract for you, so you cancel nothing yourself. The change takes effect within about 15 days at most, often in 1 to 4 days with Linky.
Is there a minimum contract term or an exit fee on French energy contracts?
No. Every residential electricity and gas contract in France is sans engagement: you can leave at any time, for free, with no notice period, even on an offer marketed as fixed for one to three years. A 14-day cooling-off period also applies to contracts signed online, by phone or at your door. You can return to EDF's regulated Tarif Bleu at any time.
Is there still a regulated tariff in France?
For electricity, yes: the Tarif Bleu, set by the State on a CRE proposal, costs 20.01 c€/kWh plus €190.32 a year (Base, 6 kVA, from 1 August 2026). EDF sells it on Enedis territory and local utilities sell it in their own zones. For gas, no: the regulated gas tariff was abolished on 1 July 2023. The CRE now publishes a monthly benchmark instead, 14.557 c€/kWh for gas heating in October 2026.
Which comparator should you use to compare energy offers?
Use the official comparator of the Médiateur national de l'énergie at comparateur-offres.energie-info.fr. It is run by a public authority, carries no advertising and lists every licensed offer, including suppliers that do not pay commercial comparators. Sites such as Selectra and JeChange rank partner retailers that pay them referral fees, so some offers, Enercoop's for example, never appear there.
How do you read a French energy bill and the option heures creuses?
A bill splits into a fixed standing charge (abonnement), a per-kWh consumption charge, network costs and taxes. Network charges (TURPE) and taxes make up about two thirds of the bill and are identical whatever supplier you choose. The Base option charges one price at all hours; heures pleines / heures creuses charges 15.89 c€/kWh off-peak against 21.42 c€/kWh at peak on the Tarif Bleu (August 2026).
What help exists if you cannot pay your energy bill?
The chèque énergie pays €48 to €277 a year to low-income households, based on tax data, and works with every supplier. The old social tariffs (TPN and TSS) were abolished in 2018. Your département's Fonds de Solidarité Logement can cover arrears, suppliers must offer a payment plan, and no home can be cut off during the trêve hivernale, from 1 November to 31 March.
What do you do if you have a dispute with your energy supplier?
First send a written complaint to your supplier. If it is unresolved after two months, refer it free of charge to the Médiateur national de l'énergie. Your supply cannot be cut while a Médiateur case is open. The sector regulator is the CRE (Commission de régulation de l'énergie).
Sources: CRE Tarif Bleu barème of 1 August 2026 (deliberation 2026-147), CRE prix repère de vente de gaz for October and November 2026 via service-public.fr, energie-info.fr switching guidance, the CRE market observatory for Q1 2026, and supplier and comparator grids checked in October 2026. Prices change; verify on the official comparator before you sign.
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