EDF’s business was invited to the heart of the Hemicycle. On the occasion of the examination of the emergency law on purchasing power, the deputies approved, on the night of Thursday 21 to Friday 22 July – and this, against the advice of the government – the raising of the regulated price at which EDF must sell part of its nuclear energy to its competitors. An obligation imposed on it, since 2011, as part of regulated access to historical nuclear electricity (Arenh).
Thanks to a coalition, the opposition parties supported – by 167 votes in favor and 136 against – the amendment of the Republicans (LR) aimed at bringing this fixed rate from 42 euros currently to “at least 49.50 euros” per megawatt-hour (MWh). And this, from 1is January 2023. An increase judged in “the interest of the EDF company”, according to Olivier Marleix, head of LR deputies, recalling that the 42 euros were well below market prices.
At a time when the company is struggling with heavy debt, aggravated by the shutdown of part of its nuclear power plants, will this decision be beneficial? And what about consumers? Internally, this gesture is welcomed, even if the response is unanimous enough to say that it does not go far enough. “By raising this tariff, the deputies have shown responsibilitysummarizes Alexandre Grillat, head of the CFE-CGC of EDF. At 42 euros, EDF sells at a loss and widens its deficit. It is therefore time to stop the bleeding”.
Concerns focus on volumes sold
A point of view shared by Hervé Chefdeville, general secretary of the Energie en actions association: “The deputies thus recognized, as had already been underlined on several occasions by the Court of Auditors, that the price of Arenh was insufficient and did not reflect EDF’s nuclear production costs”, he notes, however regretting that the law was not applied before 1is January 2023.
Beyond prices, concerns focus on volumes sold. In this regard, the energy-climate law, adopted in September 2019, provided that the government could, by decree, raise the annual ceiling of the Arenh to 150 TWh. On the occasion of the vote, Friday July 22, “the deputies accepted the idea of lowering the legal ceiling of the volume of Arenh from 150 to 120 TWh”, detailed Alexandre Grillat. In other words, the government will hardly be able to go beyond 120 TWh in its requests. “But the cost of this volume of 120 remains catastrophically high for EDF, which has to fetch a large share of these volumes from the markets. » In his opinion, this ceiling should have been lowered to around 100 to 80 TWh at least.
You have 38.29% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.