Will Edf leave France and Europe without electricity?
EDF has had to extend the closure of four nuclear reactors: as a result, France will produce even less electricity than expected. What will happen to Italy and Germany? All the details
For the fourth time this year, the French electricity company Électricité de France (EDF) has reduced its forecasts on energy production, with consequences that could affect not only France but the whole of Europe: winter is approaching, the energy demand is destined to grow but natural gas supplies are scarce, given the restrictions on flows decided by Russia.
THE CONSEQUENCES ON ITALY AND GERMANY
If French electricity were to fail, neighboring countries – such as Italy and Germany – would have to generate it from fossil sources such as gas, thus reducing the availability of heating fuel.
Italy buys 13 per cent of the electricity it consumes from abroad, of which 5 per cent from France.
– Read also: Why France gases Germany but does not electrify Italy
EDF'S PROBLEMS TO NUCLEAR REACTORS
To justify the decline in energy production estimates, EDF cited maintenance work on its nuclear power plants and workers' strikes for higher wages.
The company expects to produce 275 terawatt hours from its plants this year, up from at least 280 terawatt hours in previous estimates. Also due to the strikes of the past few weeks, which prevented repairs from taking place, EDF has extended the suspension period of four reactors that were supposed to be back in operation in the next few weeks and which instead will do so only towards the end of January or February: specifically, the Chooz B1, Penly 2, Cattenom 1 and Cattenom 3 reactors.
FRANCE BECOMES A NET IMPORTER OF ELECTRICITY
Technical problems at EDF's reactors have turned France into a net importer of electricity, reversing its traditional role as an exporter. After the announcement of the company, today the French prices of baseload energy (the continuous one in production, which allows to guarantee the stability of the grid: nuclear power, for example) for the month of January have risen by up to 24 percent.
Currently, France's nuclear power plants – half of them in operation – produce less than 30 gigawatts of energy, compared to an average of about 45 GW in the last ten years. During the cold seasons, EDF was usually able to produce 55-60 GW to meet the increased energy demand.
CRACKS IN THE PIPES
The French nuclear safety authority (ASN) said Thursday that the Cattenom 1 reactor will not be able to reopen until EDF has repaired the cracks in the pipes. Similar problems were encountered by the company at Chooz, Cattenom 3 and Penly 2.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/francia-edf-centrali-nucleari-calo-energia/ on Fri, 04 Nov 2022 14:46:29 +0000.