EDF claims 8.34 billion euros from the State to make up for the shortfall on its electricity sales

Last stand for Jean-Bernard Lévy. While the State launched, in July, the nationalization of Electricity of France (EDF), and set out to accelerate the succession of its current boss, the latter is not giving up. Very upset against the state, which imposed a tariff shield against the price increase, he decided to attack the main shareholder of the group (84%) in court. “EDF filed today [mardi 9 août] a contentious appeal to the Council of State, and a claim for compensation, for an amount estimated to date at 8.34 billion euros, from the State”, the group said in a statement. He is calling for the cancellation of the increase in the volumes of nuclear electricity sold at low prices to his competitors, alternative suppliers, which the State imposed on him at the start of 2022.

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In order to contain the rise in regulated electricity prices to 4% this year, EDF has been forced to increase the annual quota sold at a discount to its competitors by 20%, to 120 terawatt hours (TWh), against 100 TWh before, and this, while the cost of electricity exploded on the wholesale markets. This sale at knock-down prices took place within the framework of regulated access to historical nuclear electricity (Arenh), a mechanism imposed on the group in 2011 in order to guarantee, in the face of Brussels’ requirements, a form of competition in a market dominated by EDF.

“Spoliation”

In May, already, Jean-Bernard Lévy had launched a gracious appeal to ask the State to reverse this measure. “Both the price and the conditions of these allocations penalize us considerably”, he then argued. The state, which had two months – until Thursday, August 11 – to respond, has since turned a deaf ear. Consequently, EDF has chosen to take administrative action, while several unions and shareholders have also taken legal action. “Although belated and against the background of settling scores, this approach by EDF is fairjudge Fabrice Coudour, federal secretary of the FNME-CGT. But we must go further to put an end to all our ills by taking energy out of the market, by placing the general interest in the foreground and by carrying out a real nationalization of the sector. »

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For its part, Energie en actions, the association which brings together employee shareholders and former employees of the group, welcomed the appeal filed on Tuesday August 9, while regretting that this action did not intervene in support of those filed by the representatives of the employee shareholders to denounce the “spoliation” of the company. At Bercy, we remain very serene. “The State will continue to defend the Arenh raising system before the Council of State, which again recalled, in July, the general interest associated with this decision”, we are assured at the Ministry of the Economy. According to the government, “without these measures, in particular the additional volume of Arenh, household bills would have increased by 35% including tax”.

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