“Don’t sign them!” This was proclaimed by Emmanuel Macron at the end of September to the companies about the renewal of their electricity contract. The President of the Republic was then in the middle of European negotiations to achieve a reduction in market prices that had skyrocketed during the summer and remained at a particularly high level. Following this position, Emmanuelle Wargon had preferred to advise companies not to “wait until the last moment”.
A month and a half later, the message from the president of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) is clear this Wednesday in the columns of Figaro:
According to the vendors he met with, half of the companies seeking a contract for next year have signed one, but a significant number have yet to even ask for a quote.
There are only 5 days left to enjoy the Arenh
Except now time is running out, particularly because of this November 21 deadline, which is the deadline by which electricity providers must submit their applications for low-priced nuclear electricity under the Arenh system. . As a reminder, these requests are determined based on customer consumption forecasts during off-peak hours, that is, in July and August, weekends and holidays, and at night between April and October. Regulated access to historical nuclear electricity allows companies and municipalities to benefit from an electricity rate of 42 euros per megawatt hour compared to almost ten times more in the current market for nearly half of their consumption.
Despite EDF’s difficulties in complying with it, projections for the nuclear park’s reactivation schedule have already pushed down electricity prices, especially for next month, which have been halved thanks to the early restart of more than 10 reactors. The wait-and-see attitude is all the more useless since Parliament approved last month a mechanism to limit the part of the cost of electricity for SMEs in the market to 325 euros per MWh, with the surplus being paid by the State.
Bring the market price closer to the average cost of production
While several suppliers “did not play the game”, Bruno Le Maire brought them together in Bercy last month to sign a letter committing to “supply energy to SMEs at a reasonable price on reasonable terms and terms”. In this sense, the CRE maintains its monitoring level thanks to the reinforcement of its investigative powers. According to Le Figaro, two providers are thus in the crosshairs of an investigation while another five are in the crosshairs of the instance, in the pre-investigation stage.
As the new head of EDF, the president of the CRE advocates a revision of the Arenh, which entered into force more than ten years ago and expires in 2025: “This mechanism is reaching its limit. The sooner France manages to put in place a new system, which makes it possible to better reconcile the interests of EDF and low prices for customers, better The current reflection of the European Commission on a reform of the operation of the electricity market, which refers to the creation of a segment of market for the medium-long term, which would reflect more production costs, could help find a replacement for the Arenh”.
Source: BFM TV
