The figure is the highest for the first quarter of the year since 2021, when it was 4.11 million KWh. According to Reuters, this suggests that French power producers have recovered significantly from a series of problems that have limited nuclear power generation in recent years.
As of 2022, France’s nuclear reactors have struggled with maintenance on aging reactors or higher-than-usual river temperatures that have curtailed cooling operations.
At the same time, the employees of the nuclear sector applied for their rights, with whom lengthy negotiations were held.
Production problems were most acute in 2022, when electricity production from nuclear plants fell by more than 22 percent from the previous year. It was thus the lowest in the last 30 years.
With nuclear power accounting for roughly 70 percent of France’s electricity supply, such a sharp drop in nuclear power generation has forced French utilities to increase their use of natural gas and other energy fuels in 2022.
And this at the very time when the regional gas markets were disrupted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A significant increase in the use of natural gas in France has exacerbated the gas shortage experienced by Europe as a whole in 2022. It contributed to the old continent’s electricity prices rising to record levels this year.
At the Rudolfinum, Macron strongly supported the Dukovany tender participant EDF
Economy
