More nuclear, and quickly: the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire and the new CEO of EDF Luc Rémont, for his first public appearance, said they were “confident” in the capacity of the French nuclear fleet to cross the cape of winter.
“We approach the coming weeks with confidence, with the passage of winter,” said Mr. Rémont, whose priority, set by the executive, is to pilot the revival of nuclear electricity production in France.
EDF is “totally mobilized to face the challenges of the short term as well as the medium term”, underlined the new boss of the group during a visit to the site of the nuclear power plant of Penly, in Normandy, alongside the Minister of l Economy Bruno Le Maire, who came to deliver a resolutely pro-nuclear message.
“We have a key asset in the French economy, it is nuclear power, it is a question of strengthening it”, hammered the minister to the press, recalling the objective of entry into service in 2035 of the first of the six second-generation EPRs that the executive wants to build. “If it’s 2034, it’s better!”, He launched.
“My conviction is that France will be the leader and that many countries that had given up on nuclear power will reconsider their options,” he said, referring to Germany.
Dressed in the navy blue and orange vest of EDF employees, Luc Rémont spoke publicly for the first time since taking office on November 23, in front of dozens of employees.
In the evening, the Sortir dunuclear network denounced this visit by the Minister of the Economy “while a public debate is underway on the project to build two EPR 2 reactors (new generation, editor’s note) on the Penly site – and more broadly on the revival of nuclear energy”.
First electricity producer in Europe, EDF is in the process of being 100% renationalised by the State.
A recovery that worries internally. “Hercules has been abandoned, let’s be clear,” however, declared the minister, referring to this plan to separate the group’s activities into three entities, nuclear, hydroelectric and renewable energies, fought by the unions.
In the immediate future, sixteen reactors remain shut down out of 56 for scheduled or extended maintenance and corrosion problems that have required long repairs. The oldest of these reactors will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2030.
– Importer –
The restarts are accelerating, however, with three reactors reconnected just overnight from Thursday to Friday, and a regained power of 40 gigawatts (GW) which should be enough to overcome the cold snap expected these days, according to the RTE network manager.
“EDF is sticking to its schedule and we are on the right track,” assured the minister. “Let’s stop saying it’s a disaster, it’s not true,” he exclaimed.
The French, who benefited from cheap and abundant electricity thanks to nuclear power, are now facing soaring energy prices, even tempered by price shields. They must also deal with a possible shortage of electricity symbolized by the Ecowatt application and its orange or red alerts which will encourage them to limit their consumption.
EDF now estimates a drop in consumption of around 10% in November compared to the same month of 2021.
For Monday, the date on which the RTE network manager expects a consumption peak of 81.5 GW, Ecowatt remains green, even if a hazard is always possible during the weekend, indicates the network manager.
For the whole of next week, RTE is counting on a mercury drop of 5 to 6 degrees compared to the “reference temperatures”, synonymous with high consumption.
France will therefore have to import. Some of its imports will come from Germany, where only three nuclear power plants remain in operation since that country gave up this energy in the followingmath of the Fukushima disaster in 2011.
This German electricity came for 44% from renewable energies in the third quarter once morest 36% from coal.
