2024-01-10 14:03:22
A little new one. An additional nuclear reactor was coupled to the RTE (Electricity Transport Network) network during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, bringing the number of available reactors to 47. This is five more than in January 2023.
This operation was planned and is not the consequence of the cold episode affecting France and its neighbors, according to RTE. It should allow France to have the number of reactors “the highest since winter 2022 and the start of the stress corrosion crisis” that began at the end of 2021, which had shut down a large number of reactors among the 56 of the French nuclear fleet. This crisis, combined with the war in Ukraine, posed a risk of power cuts in the country during the winter of 2022/2023.
No alert for security of supply
The nuclear fleet now has a power of “more than 50 GW”, or more than 80% of the installed power, RTE said. This availability of the park is “in accordance with the forecasts presented by RTE in November 2023 in its winter outlook”, underlines the EDF subsidiary in a press release.
At noon and 7 p.m. this Wednesday, “electricity consumption in France should rise to 83 GW and 84 GW respectively, according to RTE, levels “down compared to the 2014-2019 reference period, at month of January, including during cold periods. Despite the increase in consumption compared to recent weeks, the day is classified as EcoWatt green, with no particular alert for security of supply, RTE said.
Hydraulic power plants also in good position
The level of consumption at the start of the year “is a continuation of the structural reductions initiated since the winter of 2022-2023, with -7.5% of national electricity consumption as of December 31, 2023” compared to the average. pre-pandemic years 2014-2019, specifies RTE.
Behind nuclear power, hydraulic power plants should constitute the second source of electricity production this Wednesday. According to market players’ forecasts, “France should import around 5 GW of electricity at 12 p.m. and more than 3 GW this evening at 7 p.m.”, a situation “normal in winter”, according to RTE, which estimates that on during the day, France should be “in balance, or even slightly exporting”.
On Tuesday, to respond to the cold snap, the coal-fired power plant in Saint-Avold (Moselle), operated by GazelEnergie, began producing electricity once more, for the first time in a year, according to its management.
1704896172
#French #nuclear #fleet #regaining #color
