The joy that the EU Commission wants to classify nuclear power as a sustainable energy source was short-lived for France's nuclear industry. Because France's predominantly state-owned energy company EDF has recently had to put up with a series of unpleasant news and, according to the latest forecast, will also produce less electricity this year than it has in 30 years. The share price has been in free fall for weeks. The share certificate has lost more than 30 percent in value since the beginning of December, and the market value fell by more than 10 billion euros during this period. On Monday, too, the share started trading down almost 3 percent.
The latest low blow is the announcement by the French government that EDF will increasingly be used to stabilize consumer electricity prices.
Their increase is to be capped at 4 percent in the election year.
The announced reduction in electricity tax is no longer sufficient because energy prices continue to rise sharply.
For this reason, EDF is now to sell 120 instead of the planned 100 terawatt hours of electricity to competitors such as Engie and Eni - at a state-regulated price that is well below the current market price.
The announcement came at a time when EDF had to cut its production forecast by 10 percent to between 300 and 330 terawatt hours.
Flamanville as found food
The government estimates the cost of this stabilization measure at 8 billion euros. It is still unclear whether she will jump to the side of the group, which has already done poorly in the past and has net liabilities of 45 billion euros. So far, the government has only hinted at support. JP Morgan analysts believe a capital increase is likely. The French state holds 84 percent of the shares, so it would be asked to pay the most.
A complete nationalization of EDF is already up for debate again, as it was until the partial privatization in 2004. At the weekend she called for Yannick Jadot, the Greens' candidate for the presidential election in April and who has so far been defeated in the polls. For Jadot, electricity is common property, and from his point of view it would be cheaper for the state to acquire the remaining EDF shares for 5 to 6 billion euros than to compensate private shareholders with "astronomical damages" if power plants go offline.
The repeated problems on the construction site of the new pressurized water reactor in Flamanville in Normandy are a godsend for the green opposition.
Behind the construction is Framatome, which has belonged to EDF since the former Areva group was broken up.
The nuclear reactor should now cost 12.7 instead of 12.4 billion euros.
Originally, 3.3 billion euros were estimated.
In addition, EDF postponed completion from the end of this year to spring 2023 – Flamanville 3 was supposed to be in 2012.
Poor welds
A pressurized water reactor built by EDF is going into operation in Finland these days, the first on European soil.
But there were also significant delays and cost increases.
In addition, one of the only two reactors of this type that has been connected to the grid so far remains shut down: in Taishan in China, there were problems with the fuel elements last summer.
EDF, which built the reactors in Taishan together with Chinese partners, points to mechanical wear of certain components and emphasizes that this does not fundamentally call into question the reactor model.