L R AS Published on Sunday 26 April 2020 - n° 319 - Categories:France, other France
Towards a revision of the French energy system?
In a "point of view", France Stratégie, a body attached to the French Prime Minister, calls for "re-examining the robustness of the systems for the protection of the environment".French and European electricity production, transmission and distribution systems, "in the light of the fall in activity on the demand side.
On the one hand,
renewable energy producers (wind and solar) are not affected by the crisis since the quantities of electricity produced depend on wind and sunshine input, and the purchase price is guaranteed on almost all the volumes produced.
The weather conditions in March and April were particularly favourable for the production of renewable energy.
On the other hand, the fall in activity, particularly in the industrial and tertiary sectors, has led to a sharp drop in consumption, increasing the share of "non controllable" means of production in the overall supply, including solar and wind power, but also certain nuclear power plants (about half of the park) and even certain non-flexible gas installations.The share of these non controllable means of production may even exceed the demand. In this case, the priority of injecting renewable energies into the network leads the managers of this network to shut down conventional power plants. The shutdown of certain plants deprives the use of "interruptible" means.
Demand has been so low at times, particularly at weekends, that it has generated particularly long negative price episodes. As a result, several nuclear and conventional power plants have had to be shut down in Europe. As a result, gas-fired power plants (where the marginal cost of operation is usually the highest) are the first to be shut down, although they are often the most flexible.
Above all, the fall in wholesale market prices will mechanically increase the cost of public support for renewable energies with a guaranteed purchase price on almost all the volumes produced. With a feed-in tariff of 70 € / MWh (an average value for wind power) and a market price of 55 € / MWh, the cost of support is 15 € / MWh. With a market price of 20 € / MWh, this cost increases to 50 € / MWh. This will lead to an imbalance in the Energy Transition earmarked account attached to the State budget and fed by the domestic tax on the consumption of energy products (TICPE), whose revenue is also falling sharply: the latest estimates showed a loss of €1.5 billion, due to the fall in consumption of petroleum products following the containment measures. It should be remembered that, for 2020, support for renewable electrical energy sources accounts for 65% of public energy service charges, i.e. around €5.2 billion according to the CRE. »
"Thus, the fall in economic activity caused by the containment measures could have created room for manoeuvre facilitating the management of the electricity production, transmission and distribution system. This is not the case. Several effects of the crisis weaken this system rather than consolidate it". The crisis is increasing the relative share of intermittent renewable energies in electricity production, which increases the volatility of the volumes produced (and thus of the electricity consumption).The crisis increases the relative share of intermittent renewable energies in electricity production, which increases the volatility of the volumes produced (and consequently of market prices) and requires the presence of more flexible means on the network, while these are shut down.
Moreover, "for reasons related to the rules of containment or supply difficulties, the crisis is leading to the postponement of a certain number of maintenance or fuel loading works that were to take place between now and next winter on various means of production (thermal power plants - nuclear or fossil - but also renewable energies). This postponement is likely to affect the availability of controllable power plants at a time when the cold weather could lead to greater demand on them".
The fall in wholesale prices resulting from the drop in volumes will weigh on EDF's accounts; the beneficiaries of the Arenh mechanism (access to renewable energy sources) will be able to benefit from the new system.The fall in wholesale prices resulting from the drop in volumes will weigh on EDF's accounts; the beneficiaries of the Arenh mechanism (regulated access to historical nuclear energy) will not be able to take advantage of the fall in prices, since they have most often opted for a fixed price. They will also be able to face competition from operators who have not done so under unfavourable conditions. »
PV Magazine of April 24th
Editor's note The pandemic had the merit of showing that the public authorities were far from having foreseen everything. The drop in demand, the obligation to inject RE and the confinement had the effect of disorganising the fine organisation of the French electricity system, both physical and financial.
As a result, the advantages of RE producers should be cut back, for example on the obligation to inject
This article indicates that changes will take place in the energy landscape. Otherwise, it would not have been leaked!
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Tecsol has presented this text in a different way: https://tecsol.blogs.com/mon_weblog/2020/04/france-strat%C3%A9gie-sest-pench%C3%A9e-sur-les-impacts-de-la-crise-du-covid-19-sur-le-syst%C3%A8me-%C3%A9lectrique-euro.html
