PARIS (Reuters) – France’s energy sovereignty law currently being drafted would allow the government to reform the country’s hydroelectric facilities regime to resolve a long-standing dispute with the European Commission, the cabinet said on Monday. Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
According to the preliminary draft law distributed by the ministry, which will be the subject of consultations before a passage in the Council of Ministers scheduled for the end of January or the beginning of February, the executive would be authorized to take by orders the legislative provisions necessary to ” bringing the hydroelectric concessions regime into compliance with European law.
The objective would be “to free up the investment capacities of players in the electricity system to ensure the full contribution of these installations to security of supply and the production of carbon-free electricity”.
France has been considering reforming the regulation of its hydroelectric fleet for several years, with Brussels having given it several notices to open up its concessions, today mainly operated by EDF, to competition.
The government and EDF argue that the concession regime does not allow the group to carry out substantial modifications and improvements to its dams and hydraulic structures, even though it believes it can potentially develop several gigawatts (GW) of additional production capacity.
In this context, EDF defends the transition to a so-called “authorization” regime which would allow it to invest and would not require dams to be put back into competition.
“One of the solutions which is the subject of very in-depth work is indeed the switch towards an authorization regime. It is something for which we think that there is a path, it being understood (.. .) that there also remain legal questions which must be dealt with with the Commission”, was declared Monday at the office of Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
“We have very close exchanges with Brussels, we are moving forward quickly, we have the common wish with the Commission services to find a way out from above to a dispute which has lasted for more than 15 years and which has blocked investments in hydro, and we will move forward on this dialogue with them in parallel with the progress of the text”, added the same source.
The bill on France’s energy sovereignty also plans to achieve the objective of maintaining the country’s nuclear capabilities and that of building the new reactors of the EPR2 program. It also aims to implement new regulation of the electricity market from January 1, 2026, which was the subject of an agreement in November.
The text also sets the objective of reducing France’s gross greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in 2030 (compared to 1990) and of reducing primary consumption from fossil fuels by 50%. horizon 2030 (compared to 2012), with also a new objective of a reduction of 65% in 2035.
(Reporting by Benjamin Mallet; editing by Kate Entringer)
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