Between the war in Ukraine and record temperatures, France had various reasons to go without gas. Its gross consumption fell to 430 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2022, against 474 TWh in 2021. That is 9% less, notes the main manager of the national gas transmission network, GRTgaz, in its report for the past year, Friday 10 FEBRUARY.
The subsidiary of Engie (ex-GDF) speaks of two types of sobriety, one “chosen”the other “suffered”. The first is part of the government’s plan, since the fall of 2022, to encourage households and manufacturers to save energy. In addition to the climate challenge of turning away from fossil fuels such as oil and gas (over 60% of final energy consumption in the country in total), there is an immediate need to reduce dependence on Russia. Since the offensive of Russian troops in Ukraine, almost a year ago, the European Union (EU) intends to deprive itself, by 2027, of its main gas supplier until then – the second for France before the war, behind Norway.
Another corollary of the conflict, sobriety “suffered” due to rising bills dissuades some users from consuming as much as they would like. Already rising sharply under the effect of the recovery in economic activity, gas prices on the wholesale market have increased further: 97 euros per megawatt hour on average in the territory in 2022. More than double over one year, but less than in Germany (122 euros), where Russian gas pipeline deliveries played a major role.
Low nuclear availability
Apart from geopolitics, global warming has also pulled consumption down. According to Météo-France, 2022 was “the hottest year ever recorded in metropolitan France since records began in 1900”, with an average of 14.5°C. As a result, heating needs have decreased in winter. The phenomenon is even the first explanation for the fall in consumption from one year to the next for the public distribution network (residential, tertiary sector, small industrialists): – 16.6% in absolute terms, but – 6 .2% by neutralizing climatic effects. Impossible, on the other hand, to determine in this last percentage the distribution between sobrieties undergone and chosen.
The rise in prices and several economic constraints (inflation on raw materials, supply difficulties, declining demand) partly explain the sharp declines for heavy industry (for the GRTgaz network alone and not that of the other operator Teréga infrastructure): – 19% in metallurgy, the same in the refining and petrochemicals sector.
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