2023-07-20 06:32:50
Baptiste Morin / Photo credit: THOMAS SAMSON / AFP
Two days following the announcement of the 10% increase in regulated electricity prices from August 1, a question arises. Has the opening of the market to competition kept all its promises in terms of price? A priori, no.
The 10% increase from August 1 in regulated electricity prices will affect nearly 23 million French households. Faced with a new increase, a little music is heard: the opening of the electricity market to competition would not have kept its promise. The new players on the market would even be largely responsible for the increase in our bills.
The price of the kilowatt hour has increased by more than 60% in 10 years
Over the last ten years, the price per kilowatt hour has increased by more than 60% and the opening up to competition is not innocent. In the calculation of the regulated tariffs, nuclear is a component, in the same way as the prices on the wholesale market.
“On the European market, there is a lot of thermal energy and it is the cost of producing thermal electricity that plays a leading role. And it is in particular the price of gas which has soared in 2022”, explains Jacques Percebois, economist and energy specialist.
Prices reflect supply and demand
But the opening of the market to competition does not explain everything. The tariffs in France also integrate supply and demand and therefore, at the moment, the lack of nuclear electricity. “Last year, what happened was that EDF, which previously produced around 400 terawatt hours a year, produced 280 terawatt hours, a drop of more than a quarter”, indicates Jean-Sébastien Degouve, president from the broker Opéra Énergie, at the microphone of Europe 1. Thanks to the European market, France has passed its consumption peaks in 2022.
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