British Energy was the UK's largest electricity generation company by volume, before being taken over by Électricité de France (EDF) in 2009. British Energy operated eight former UK state-owned nuclear power stations and one coal-fired power station. From 1 July 2010 the rebranding of British Energy locations and communications to EDF Energy commenced as part of its incorporation into the parent group, following around 17 months of dual branding. This was concluded with the renaming of the operating company from British Energy Generation Limited to EDF Energy Nuclear Generation Limited on 1 July 2011. Structure In 2009, the British Energy subsidiary group was structured accordingly: British Energy Group plc: holding company, a wholly owned subsidiary of EDF S.A. British Energy Generation Ltd: dominant subsidiary; owned and ran the large power stations, was licensed to operate nuclear power stations. District Energy Ltd: owned four modern 10MWe natural gas-fuelled power plants. British Energy Renewables Ltd: participated in a small number of renewable power projects. Lewis Wind Power Ltd: joint venture with AMEC to develop a proposed wind farm on the Isle of Lewis. History Early history and development British Energy was established and registered in Scotland in 1995 to operate the eight most modern nuclear power plants in the UK. It took the two Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) plants from Scottish Nuclear and five AGR and a sole pressurised water reactor (PWR) plant from Nuclear Electric. The residual Magnox power stations from these two companies were transferred to Magnox Electric which later became the generation division of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. The company was privatised in 1996. It retained major technical offices at Barnwood, formerly the HQ of Nuclear Electric, and Peel Park, formerly the HQ of Scottish Nuclear. In June 1999, in an attempt to become an integrated generating and retail company, British Energy bought the retail electricity and gas supplier SWALEC based in Wales, providing 6% of the England and Wales electricity supply market. However it was unable to purchase another retailer at a reasonable cost to create a widespread retail presence, so sold SWALEC a few months later to Scottish and Southern Energy. British Energy bought the 2,000MWe Eggborough coal fired station from National Power in 2000, to provide a more flexible power production facility and reduce penalty charge risks from the New Electricity Trading Arrangements introduced in March 2001. Despite this, the new arrangements led to a significantly