Edenor S.A. is the largest distributing company of electricity of Argentina. It takes care of the necessities of more than 2.450.000 customers in an area of concession of 4,637 Km2, that understands a part of the North of the City of Buenos Aires and several neighborhoods in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, where live more than 7 million people.

Edenor set up the First of September 1992, and employs 2,460 employees and more than 5,000 in indirect form, between contractors, suppliers, transportation, etc.

Until December 2006, Edenor had invested $ 1,754.7 million, which allowed the improvement of the service quality, reducing the power interruptions from 13.6, in 1992, to 2.65, in 2006, and the time of interruption from 22.1 hours to 4.8 hours, respectively.

It has also accompanied both industrial and household demand growth, contributing to economic expansion.

Its current shareholders are EASA, 51 percent; listed shares, 48.8 percent, and Employee Stock Ownership Plan, 0.2 percent.

Sustainable development

Edenor upholds the principles of Sustainable Development within the strategic notions of its performance, based on three pillars: social responsibility, environmental care and corporate profitability, assuming among them the principles of the Global Pact.

Due to the fact that sustainable availability of energy is essential to guarantee such quality of life conditions as related to secure supply, health, and the general welfare of population, Edenor has been working in different projects tending to generate better conditions for those customers experiencing difficulties to remain within the electric power secure supply system.

Corporate social responsibility

As an expert member, Edenor takes part in the Committee of Development of ISO 26000 Standard on Social Responsibility, representing the Argentine industry in the international sphere. Edenor is also a company signatory of Global Pact, supporting its principles both at domestic level and in the international forums where it takes part. In that regard, the company has submitted its second report on Communication on Progress, being recognized by Global Pact domestic network.

Rational use of energy

The Rational Use of Energy (URE, for its Spanish acronym) is a permanent and central goal of the company, since it is intended to avoid the waste of energy.

To a great extent, non-renewable fuels are used to produce electric power; therefore, environmental protection is achieved by applying URE policies. With that purpose, the company sent all its residential customers the instructions “Let’s take care the energy, let ‘s take care the future,” containing Edenor Advice to avoid waste.

Sustainable availability of energy

Edenor is building two prototypes of new houses, with efficient,isolation and thermal materials, which will enable to reduce the use of energy by 30%. The project, named “Houses per +Energy” is being carried out in Moreno District, province of Buenos Aires, and the houses will be delivered free of charge to low-income families in the area.

Refurbishment will also take place in 8 housing units, in order to achieve thermal isolation of roofs and walls, and alternative technologies and efficient electric appliances will be introduced in other 30 houses.

The project was also continued of pay-as-you-go ,watt-hour enabling the families with irregular income to have legal access to electric power, since they can purchase energy from one peso upward, enough to cover the consumption of a nuclear family for approximately one day and a half.

As the watt-hour display is installed inside the customer’s home, the customer quickly learns each device’s consumption and modifies his/her habits, reducing consumption by 30% and making it sustainable. One-hundred pre-paid watt-hour are installed in Escobar and 4,400 in the Municipality of Merlo.

In addition, the Company launched the “Vale Luz” Project (an electricity voucher), which contributes to prevent the problem of paying the consumption of a two-month period in one go, through the sale of one-peso vouchers. In Los Troncos Neighborhood in Tigre there are 247 customers using this system.

Educational and cultural programs

The company support to education is a key factor in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) strategy, but having URE and sustainable availability of energy as the strategic goals.

In 2006, 300 interactive workshops were conducted, named “Connection to the Future”, in 150 primary schools, which allowed training 70,000 pupils. In these workshops, pupils are taught about electric power, how it is generated, transported and distributed, safety at home and in public highways, rational use of energy and environmental protection, among other topics. Since 1998, when this activity started, the training courses involved 740,000 pupils from 1,700 schools.

Another program is “One hundred books for our school”. It consists in the weekly organization of contests of posters or models on electric topics. The schools attended by the pupils whose works are the winners receive a total one hundred text books and recreation books. This activity has been carried out for 12 years and 64,000 books have been delivered.

Public safety

Edenor extended the campaign “Take care of your life, take care of your neighborhood” to all residential customers started in 2005. The purpose of this communication is to make customers aware of the risks caused by damage due to theft or vandalism in electric facilities, and the consequences of theft of electric power. The company also provides training courses for Volunteer Firemen, intended to contribute to a better and safer action before emergencies involving electric risk, and how to improve first aid to victims of said accidents.

Health

Edenor was granted the “Building free from Smoke” certificate, issued by the Ministry of Health, for its headquarters and for another building in San Justo. Surveys conducted among the staff showed that after the decision not to allow smoking inside said buildings, 20% of smoking workers ceased to smoke and a similar number reduced the quantity of cigarettes smoked daily.

Work

It is Edenor policy to manage its human resources within a framework of continuous improvement enabling to reach greater efficiency and satisfaction on the part of its staff. Edenor expanded its technical team payroll, covering half of the positions with professional youths from its technical internships plan, benefiting students attending the last courses of high school industrial term. As regards labor safety conditions, Edenor achieved certification for its performance in Technical Direction and Works with Voltage under OHSAS 18001 standards.

Environmental protection

Within the material recycling program 63% of waste produced was disposed for recycling, including cables, electric items and refrigerant oils, even batteries and printer cartridges. In the same way, under the work program with Hospital Garrahan Foundation, more than 60,000 kg of paper collected in Edenor buildings were disposed for re-use.