The growing complexity of the business of the EDP Group, in terms of the increasing number of companies trading in different business areas (Electricity, Gas and Services), allied to increasingly demanding regulation and legislation, with the requirement to separate the different activities throughout the value chain (networks, regulated and free marketing) and the personal data confidentiality, protection and legality obligation, led the EDP Group to approve a set of Business Data Governance Principles and Policies.

Accordingly, the EDP Soluções Comerciais Management Control and Data Governance Office shall be supported by principles and policies that guide EDP's business information management functions, which are essential for the optimization of the organization's business processes.

Data is an organizational asset to be managed as such, and specific functions of data governance must be defined to ensure data quality, usability, security and availability throughout operational activity, always in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, particularly in terms of the separation of personal data protection and activities.  This activity shall be supported by information concepts and general practices in the use, maintenance and management of data and information systems, as a means of optimizing organisational activity.

Data structures shall be duly identified and there must not be incorrectly completed or incomplete fields, but preset standards must be followed.

The source of the data and collection methods are identified and documented and their quality must be monitored.

Data used for processing is duly validated and its integrity is guaranteed by compliance with business requirements and processing by specialised authorised teams.

Data must be made available in accordance with the legal and sectoral rules applicable and with the business needs of the operational units. Access will be limited based on user function and users will be accountable for the security of the data they query and for its use.

Data backups are stored so as to meet business needs efficiently and they are destroyed, with permission, in a safe environment.

This set of Principles and Policies chiefly applies to Portugal, and its main Stakeholders are the Operational Units of EDP Soluções Comerciais, EDP Distribuição, EDP Serviço Universal, EDP Comercial and EDP Gás, in relation to data use, and the Internal Control and Data Governance Office of EDP Soluções Comerciais, the Corporate Centre in general and the DAN and DSI in particular, in relation to data quality, architecture, security and safeguarding.