2023-12-26 20:02:21
The electricity network manager RTE announced on Tuesday December 26 that France exported a record volume of electricity to its neighbors on Friday, in particular due to lower national needs and better availability of nuclear power plants.
This record amount of export capacity “reserved” by the markets reached some 18,680 megawatts (MW), compared to 17,415 MW, during the previous record established on February 22, 2019, RTE indicated, confirming information from the daily Les Échos. The actual export volume may vary marginally up to an hour before the appointed time, said RTE, which was not able to provide the corrected data immediately.
The United Kingdom, Germany and Italy among the beneficiaries
This electricity was exported to the United Kingdom (3 GW), Germany and Benelux (5.4 GW), Switzerland (3.2 GW), Italy (4.4 GW) and Spain (2.6 GW), detailed RTE. “There is a need at the moment which is a little lower in consumption in France, since we are in a holiday period”underlined the manager to explain this record export spike.
In addition to departures on leave, “Temperatures last week were unseasonably high, especially on Thursday”where they “could have been 4 to 6 degrees above seasonal norms”indicated Météo France, which also explains the lower electricity needs in France.
RTE also highlights production costs “competitive”given that “the availability of all our means of production, particularly nuclear power”increased compared to last year.
” Weak “ risk of power outage this winter
Placed in an unprecedented situation due to corrosion problems detected on several nuclear reactors, France had to import electricity in 2022, which had not happened for 42 years. From, “a notable proportion of the nuclear fleet was able to be checked and repaired during the year”RTE reported at the beginning of November, during its traditional press briefing on the passage of winter.
The network manager then considered ” weak “ the risk of power cuts this winter, unlike last year, when the stress corrosion crisis made many reactors unavailable and caused nuclear production to fall to its lowest level in 30 years.
Wind power also provided “good production” last week, covering around 20% of national electricity production, RTE said.
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