L R AS Published on Monday 12 September 2022 - n° 415 - Categories:other France

The delicate situation of energy supply in France

The rise in the price of gas mechanically affects the price of electricity, as the latter is based on the costs of the power station that will produce the last kilowatt-hours needed. Gas-fired power stations are the last to be called into production, and have the most expensive production costs. Nuclear power plant shutdowns

(29 out of 56 in operation) are reducing their availability rate to about 40%, compared to the usual 70-80%. The lack of nuclear power generation is forcing greater use of the more expensive gas-fired plants. EDF expects 80-90% availability for the winter months, but this rate will fall back after February. Normal levels of nuclear generation are expected to return in 2024 or 2025.

This winter in France, electricity will come from nuclear, hydro, renewables, gas and coal. Production will be supplemented by imports from neighbouring countries, at a time when they too may be in energy difficulties.

This is reflected in the forward prices for 2023, which exceeded €1,100 on Friday 26 August, and exceed €500 per kWh for 2024. This means that operators fear big supply shortfalls as the situation will not be normalised by the end of 2023. It also indicates that the price of gas will remain very high in 2023 due to Russian gas supply disruptions, and nuclear production being 20% lower than in normal times.

Who benefits from this situation?

Solar power plant operators, with low or no production costs, can benefit if they sell their energy on the wholesale market, but many producers have long-term delivery contracts at the tariff set by the state or by PPAs already concluded. They can only marginally take advantage of this opportunity.

Renewable energy producers can take advantage of this situation by signing new PPAs, sometimes concluded after reverse auctions! On their side, users are looking for PPAs to obtain energy at a fixed price lower than the market price! However, intermittency remains a problem for the producer who cannot provide constant energy. One solution could be to back up solar production with storage in order to have energy available outside production hours.

In France, the share of solar energy is limited. The power plants cannot be controlled. Production remains intermittent. It reduces the average price of a kilowatt-hour of electricity

https://www.pv-magazine.fr/2022/09/06/entretien-quelle-perspective-pour-le-solaire-dans-la-crise-energetique/

PV Magazine of 6 September 2022

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