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Electricity prices are set by the French government not the wholesale cost or cost of production. Which is why EDF - the operator of the French nuclear fleet -
by derriz 1y ago
Electricity prices are set by the French government not the wholesale cost or cost of production. Which is why EDF - the operator of the French nuclear fleet - regularly posts massive losses. Like the €18 billion loss in 2023.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2023/02/17/france-s-edf-posts-record-annual-loss-debt-swells_6016197_7.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2023/02/17/france-s...
- KptMarchewa 1y ago2022, not 2023. That was due to one time effect of corrosion repairs. For 2023 and 2024 EDF was profitable, with net income of those two years exceeding that 2022 loss.
- mikeyouse 1y agoAnd I’m generally a nuclear proponent but one of the worst investments the French utility made was investing in the UKs reactor debacle at Hinkley C.
- caminante 1y agoPer wiki, cost midrange is now 45 BEUR. That's ~14 MEUR/MW capacity (v. solar @ ~1MEUR/MW). Ouch!
- Tade0 1y agoTo make matters worse gas peaker plants cost approximately €1mln/MW as well, so at the cost of that plant you could have massively overprovisioned solar, backup gas plants and plenty of money for fuel to spare which you wouldn't be spending immediately, so it could be invested instead.
- caminante 1y agoYes, though gas plant install prices are 2-3MEUR/MW these days due to demand/supply.
- MaxL93 1y agoIt should be noted that most of EDF's massive losses are due to the ARENH. The European Union insists that EDF must sell energy at very discounted prices, so that third-party "providers" can make an entry on the energy market. The idea was that they would eventually sell their own energy supply, but most just pocketed the difference between the dirt-cheap energy & what they charged customers, then ran away the moment there was any hint of change on the horizon. Or, to put it in simpler, blunter terms: in the name of "competition", EDF was forced to heavily subsidize companies that turned out to be nothing more than rent-seekers that only sought to, effectively, grab free subsidy money. Here are some articles about it: 2022: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/10/edf-sues-french-government-for-7bn-after-forced-to-sell-energy-at-a-loss-macron-price-cap https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/10/edf-sues-fr... 2023: https://www.ft.com/content/e2fc3abf-4803-4561-8ef2-0c77fd2d07a8 https://www.ft.com/content/e2fc3abf-4803-4561-8ef2-0c77fd2d0... 2024: https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/europes-under-radar-industrial-policy-intervention-electricity-pricing https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/europes-under-radar-ind...
- radu_floricica 1y agoSo that's an European thing? huh. We have this in Romania - a couple years back when the war in Ukraine started just as the green deal took effect, the gov started spending like crazy on subsidizing energy. But they did it in a convoluted way with a layer of intermediaries that basically were allowed to invoice the state for price differences from arbitrary price levels. Almost "I'd like to sell at twice the price but you're not letting me, so gimme the difference" - if not exactly that. I'm not sure if I'm feeling better or worse that it's a EU invention. Either way, it's hellof a corrupt practice.
- L-four 1y agoNo it's a neoliberal thing. Rather than the government doing the thing. They hand out massive subsides and hope it gets done.
- oezi 1y agoI skimmed your posts but they don't blame EU rules. Can you point to EU regulation which caused this? ARENH looks like a mechanism by which France wanted to entice competition in end customer sales (and distribution?) of electricity.
- mpweiher 1y agoPure disinformation. EDF is generally highly profitable while at the same time delivering cheap, reliable power. 2023 was the one exception, due to the energy crisis and its interaction with the ARENH program that forces EDF to sell power from nuclear at a fixed low price (usually way below market). Even if it needs that power itself. So in 2022, it still had to sell this power at 4 cent/kWh, and then had to buy that same power back from the market at up to €1/kWh.