EDF has announced new delays on reactors under maintenance.
The winter electricity forecasts have something to cool the most optimistic. If the weather, exceptionally mild for the season, allows France to save up to now the gas which fills its stocks as well as the water from its hydroelectric dams, nuclear power, on the other hand, risks more and more not to be at the meeting. EDF announced Thursday evening that it was revising the production of its power plants downwards for 2022, following delays in its maintenance schedule and a slow strike on construction sites with devastating effects.
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It is therefore necessary to mobilize all the possible reserves of electrical power. The day after EDF’s announcement, the government asked the electrician and all operators of wind farms and hydroelectric dams to “unleash” their production capacities. More specifically, the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, asked in a letter to the CEO of EDF, Jean-Bernard Lévy, to “do everything possible to create new leeway for the passage of winter”.
That “passes, in particular, (…) by the maximization of renewable production of wind origin, which requires for EDF a site-by-site expertise of the possibilities of unclamping”. A bit like old mopeds, wind turbines are restricted for various reasons and could, without constraint, produce more.
Protect bats
“We have 7% acoustic and environmental restrictions on average on the French wind farm, figure Corentin Sivy, director of development and acquisitions at BayWa re France. However, acoustic restraint in winter makes little sense, you don’t have an aperitif outside in the middle of a storm. The restraints also relate to measures to protect birds of prey or bats. “Here too, drastic standards make little sense, 80%-90% of bridled beaches do not see a bat’s wing”, advances the professional.
Hydroelectric dams are also limited by regulations. The government therefore plans to increase “in advance the power of hydroelectric concessions”. The increased use of dams was hitherto limited by the existence of a fee applicable to operators in the event of an increase in power. However, this tax was abolished by the finance law for 2023 to unleash the dams.
EDF specifies that these measures are “already under investigation”, but refuses to give an estimate of the power in reserve.
It is not certain that the production “unbridled” renewables can compensate late reactors for their restart. No less than 26 out of 56 reactors are currently shut down for maintenance or for repair of a generic corrosion defect. EDF announced Thursday evening the postponement of the restart of four of them.
The race against the clock started by the company to restart as many reactors as possible before the worst of winter is becoming increasingly difficult to win
The nuclear operator still has to put around fifteen reactors back into operation by the end of the month. “We are fully mobilized to meet the reactor availability objectives for this winter”, repeats EDF. The race against time initiated by the company to restart as many reactors as possible before the worst of winter is becoming increasingly difficult to win. The more delays there are, the steeper the slope for EDF.
The RTE network manager expects 38 gigawatts of power in operation at the start of December, then 45 gigawatts at the start of January, compared to 27 in operation today.
Could this be the first effects of the government’s sobriety plan, or the first signs of a recession? Fortunately for the electricity system, consumption by individuals and businesses is down. Over the last thirty days, it is nearly 6% lower (corrected for weather effects) than that observed last year at the same time.