The energy-sector (IEG) pension scheme (EDF, Engie, Enedis, GRDF…)

The scheme of the electricity and gas industries (IEG) is often filed in the same drawer as SNCF’s: “another subsidised special scheme.” That’s wrong on the most important point — the IEG receive no State subsidy. Better still: this scheme is a condensed version of the whole French system, because it stacks, within the same sector, pay-as-you-go (the special scheme) and funded pensions (the PERO). Which makes it the series’ textbook case.

3rd episode. The 1st — pay-as-you-go and the “42 schemes” — sets out the vocabulary; the 2nd — SNCF — serves here as the point of comparison.

The fund and the scope

The scheme covers the employees of the IEG branch: EDF, Engie, Enedis, GRDF, RTE, plus local distribution companies (ELD). It is run by the CNIEG (national fund of the electricity and gas industries), created in 2005, which is part of the social-security system¹. It is a base special pension scheme: for these workers it replaces both the general scheme and the complementary one.

The real story: a scheme funded without the State

Since the 2004–2005 reform, funding rests on three channels — none of which is a subsidy from the State budget²:

1. Attachment. The sector contributes to the general scheme (Cnav) and to Agirc-Arrco as if its workers were affiliated to them; in return those schemes pay the equivalent of the “base rights.” The special scheme only pays, from its own funds, the surplus above ordinary law.
2. The CTA (contribution tarifaire d’acheminement). It funds the past rights prior to 2005 of the regulated activities (transport and distribution) — and it appears, as an identified line, on electricity and gas bills.
3. The IEG companies, which directly fund the past specific rights of the competitive activities (generation, retail).

The rules: active service, credits, ages

As at SNCF, the essentials come down to service categories. Arduous jobs classified as active service (and, historically, insalubrious) give entitlement to credits — extra contribution quarters — and to early retirement. A worker with at least 15 years of such service can leave earlier (around 59 for cohorts born from 1975, after reform)³.

The scheme was progressively tightened, first by the 2010 “Woerth” reform (from 60 to 62, tighter credits), then by the 2023 reform, transposed to the scheme by decree of 28 July 2023³. The logic is the same as for the private sector: ages and durations raised, specific advantages trimmed — while keeping the structure for those already in it.

Closed to new entrants since 1 September 2023

Like several special schemes, the IEG one is closed to new entrants since 1 September 2023 (decree no. 2023-692 of 28 July 2023)⁴: an employee hired after that date falls under the general scheme + Agirc-Arrco. Again, this is the grandfather clause: slow extinction, nothing taken from staff already in post.

On top of pay-as-you-go: the PERO

This is what makes the IEG so instructive: on top of the special scheme (pay-as-you-go), the branch set up a funded supplementary pension. Historically this was the supplementary pension scheme (RSR), a mandatory “article 83” arrangement in place since 2009 for EDF group employees⁵. With the PACTE law, it was turned into a PERO (mandatory retirement savings plan): effective 1 April 2023 at Enedis and RTE, then generalised across the EDF group by group agreement⁵.

Concretely, an IEG worker therefore contributes to two stacked tiers: a special scheme by pay-as-you-go (CNIEG) and a PERO by funding (mainly employer contributions, capital invested, payout as an annuity or lump sum). It’s exactly the pay-as-you-go + funded combination we’ll detail in the episode on workplace savings — the IEG are its real-world illustration.

Key takeaways

• The IEG scheme (the CNIEG fund) is a base special scheme covering EDF, Engie, Enedis, GRDF, RTE, ELD.
• Its hallmark: no State subsidy. It is funded by attachment to the general scheme, by the CTA (on bills) and by the sector’s companies.
• The CTA isn’t a “disguised levy”: it’s a transparent line earmarked for pre-2005 past rights — its design is up for debate, its nature isn’t.
• Closed to new entrants since 2023. And on top of the special scheme sits a funded layer (RSR → PERO) — pay-as-you-go and funded side by side.

Next episode: the RATP Paris transit scheme — the most media-covered one, and the best case for understanding, figures in hand, what “grandfather clause” means over fifty years.

This article is general information and does not constitute advice. The rules and figures cited are those known in mid-2026 and change with each reform.