The French nuclear problems send energy prices beyond the Alps skyrocketing
Forward electricity prices in France for early 2024 are double those in Germany for next winter, as France's huge nuclear fleet continues to show signs of weakness in production and availability.
The price of French electricity for the first quarter of 2024 was $455 (416 euros) per megawatt hour (MWh) on Wednesday. That's more than double the price for the same period in Germany, where the price of energy was $185 (€169) per MWh for the start of 2024, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
France has had problems with several of its nuclear reactors, half of which have been shut down for repairs and maintenance on several occasions over the past year.
Instead Germany ended the nuclear power era despite continued concerns about energy security and energy supply following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the end of natural gas supplies from Russia, which was pre-war the main gas supplier of the largest European economy.
In France, concerns over the operations of France's large nuclear park resurfaced last month, after France's nuclear safety authority, the ASN, told energy giant and operator of large nuclear reactors EDF to review its reactor checks program, following the discovery of yet another leak in a nuclear power plant.
This led to an 8% single-day surge in French electricity prices next year, the biggest jump since the end of January.
For much of last year, nuclear power generation in France was well below capacity, as more than half of the country's reactors went offline at some point in the fall due to repairs or maintenance.
At the moment, French nuclear plants are producing 17.5% less than the average production rate projected for 2020 and 2021. This is a decrease from 23% last year, so there is some progress, but worries remain, also because the country is plagued by continuous strikes.
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The article The problems of French nuclear power send energy prices beyond the Alps to the stars comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/i-problemi-del-nucleare-francese-mandano-i-prezzi-dellenergia-doltralpe-alle-stelle/ on Wed, 19 Apr 2023 14:55:59 +0000.