2023-10-04 09:00:10
Will the daily exchanges between the government and the CEO of EDF, Luc Rémont, lead to an agreement? The discussion concerns the future selling price of nuclear electricity by the group. For weeks, the State, which once once more became the sole shareholder in June, and its public company have been trying to find a compromise preserving the purchasing power of individuals and the competitiveness of industrialists on the one hand, the capacity of EDF to finance its heavy investments of the other.
A new pricing mechanism is strategic for two reasons: to avoid the historic inflation of 2022, where the price of a megawatt hour (MWh) temporarily exceeded 1,000 euros on the wholesale market in France; support the decarbonization of the economy, which will involve strong growth in electricity consumption, particularly of nuclear origin, but also renewable (wind, solar, etc.).
“We are reaching the end of a model and EDF is at the start of a new cycle of very heavy investments, of the order of 25 billion euros each year”explains Mr. Rémont to Monde. A level without equivalent since the nuclear power program of the 1970s and 1980s, which the group had to finance by borrowing on the markets. Appointed in November 2022, the manager ensures “share with the State” a double objective: “Offer available, competitive and carbon-free electricity to our individual and industrial customers, while protecting them from soaring prices; but also give EDF the means to invest. »
“Regain control of prices”
Mr. Rémont believes that“we must define new rules for the next fifteen to twenty years, and avoid poorly designed mechanisms or mechanisms that change all the time”. Like regulated access to historic nuclear electricity (Arenh), planned from 1is July 2011 to December 31, 2025. It allowed alternative suppliers (Engie, TotalEnergies, etc.) to access part (100 terawatt hours) of the production of EDF nuclear power plants at the discounted price of 42 euros per megawatt hour – more than six times less than the average prices of the “spot” market, that of overnight, in 2022. This « poison » slow, according to Mr. Rémont’s two predecessors, Henri Proglio and Jean-Bernard Lévy, has seriously damaged the company’s balance sheet.
These are the terms of the new mechanism that must now be found ” quickly “, recognizes Mr. Rémont. Before mid-October, asked him, according to Le Figaro, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, receiving him at Matignon on September 22. During his presentation of the main axes of the “ecological planning”Monday September 25, the President of the Republic also accelerated the pace. “We will regain control over our electricity prices by the end of the year”, warned Emmanuel Macron. He promised more details in October. Without seeing fit to wait for the reform of the European electricity market, which is off to a bad start according to Paris, and the possible outcome of the difficult negotiations with Germany.
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