The government wants to rely more on dams and wind turbines to get through the winter safely. The executive has asked EDF, and more generally other energy companies, to take measures to free up dams and wind farms in order to facilitate the country’s electricity supply this winter, after the announcement of a prolonged unavailability of certain nuclear reactors.
In a letter to the CEO of EDF dated Friday, the Minister for the Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, asks him to “do everything possible to create a new margin of maneuver for the passage of winter”, which “passes, in particular, for maximizing the company’s renewable production”.
This means increasing “in advance the power of hydroelectric concessions,” he writes. The increased use of dams has so far been limited, in particular, by the existence of a fee applicable to operators in the event of an increase in power. But this tax should disappear thanks to the new finance law.
site-by-site debridement
It is also “the maximization of renewable production of wind origin, which requires for EDF site-by-site knowledge of the possibilities of unlocking, in connection with the decentralized services of the State, which are instructed to instruct possible priority requests”, adds the letter addressed to Jean-Bernard Lévy, who will soon be replaced by Luc Rémont This request refers, in addition to EDF, to all operators, it was specified to the ministry.
The fastening of the wind turbines is configured in advance, according to their exposure, the wind thresholds… to also limit certain impacts, in particular noise. Unlocking and its conditions will be decided site by site, with each park having its own characteristics. The effort “ultimately goes through the acceleration of the renewable projects under construction carried out by EDF”, adds the minister, inviting him to “report the possible difficulties of these projects”.
For EDF, this letter “is part of a continuity of exchanges” with the government in view of winter, and the issue of increasing renewable production “was already under investigation”, without the ‘we can still at this stage assess the volume of additional electricity expected there. “We will give an answer as soon as possible,” adds the group.
26 closed reactors
To date, 26 nuclear reactors are stopped due to maintenance and corrosion problems, out of a fleet of 56. EDF announced on Thursday a new postponement of the reconnection date for four of them and lowered its estimate of nuclear production for 2022, by one already tight context of electricity and gas supply. On the renewable front, the government is also counting on the entry into full service of the first offshore wind farm in France, in Saint-Nazaire.
In addition, “the work on the reliability of our electricity import capacity, in particular from Germany, should find a favorable result very soon”, adds Agnès Pannier-Runacher in her letter. Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed in early September that France would deliver more gas to Germany, which in return could supply electricity to its neighbor if needed.
Source: BFM TV
