The CFE-CGC union of the energy sector denounced on Monday “the greedy behavior” of certain producers of renewable electricity that, with the support of the State for years, today abandon public mechanisms to take advantage of the high wholesale prices of electricity.
“Not content with having benefited from priority access to the grid (…), renewable energy producers (EnR) no longer hesitate to terminate contracts and power tariffs in order to sell their production freely in the market where prices skyrocket at maximum”. great misfortune for French consumers”, denounced the CFE-CGC Energies, the second most representative union organization of the electricity and gas industries.
“It is a message for political decision-makers”, underlines its national secretary Alexandre Grillat, while the deputies begin the examination of a bill that proposes to speed up the installation of solar panels or the development of offshore wind energy by recognizing these projects . of public interest.
Extension
Since 2011, renewables such as solar and wind have benefited from buy-back grants that provided income guarantees when market prices were low.
In exchange, if electricity prices rose, these producers had to return part of their profits to the State.
But since the spring, and especially since the summer, the endings are accelerated.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) sounded the alarm at the beginning of November and considered “abnormal” that the affected producers withdrew from the guaranteed contracts.
In July, these early terminations of support contracts by certain producers affected a capacity of 1.3 gigawatts (GW) and at the end of September more than 3.7 GW, “a considerable loss for the budgets of the State, the order of 6 to 7,000 million euros”. cumulatively for the years 2022 and 2023”, according to the CRE.
“These facilities could only be developed thanks to the financial support of the State from which they benefited for periods generally exceeding 10 years,” recalled this independent body, which demanded higher taxation for these electricians.
The Government voted this Friday in the Senate for an extension of 3,000 million euros in the draft state budget for 2023 to compensate for these anticipated breaches of contracts at the initiative of renewable electricity producers.
Source: BFM TV
