The government’s decision to force EDF to sell more cheap nuclear electricity in 2022 to its competitors to contain the French bill was deemed legal by the Council of State on Friday. The administrative court had been seized by the group and organizations of employees and shareholders. The applicants requested the annulment of a decree of March 2022 providing for the raising of the Arenh ceiling (“Regulated access to historical nuclear electricity”), a mechanism allowing EDF’s competitors to buy part of its production of nuclear electricity at low cost.
“EDF takes note of the decision of the Council of State”, reacted the group in a press release on Sunday. “The compensation procedure initiated by EDF before the Administrative Court of Paris to obtain full compensation from the State for the damage suffered by EDF (…) is continuing”, he adds.
A “compliant” measure for the Council of State
The government had decided to raise from 100 to 120 terawatt hours (TWh) the Arenh allocated for 2022 to competitors of EDF, which has since claimed compensation of more than 8 billion euros. Before the Council of State, EDF qualified this measure as state aid, considering that it should have been notified to Europe. But for the court, “this measure is compliant” because it “does not create a new device, but only increased the maximum overall volume of electricity likely to be transferred”.
This increase “meets the objectives of the 2010 law – guaranteeing free choice of supplier and price stability – and is not excessive to achieve them given the exceptional context” of rising energy prices, adds the state Council.
