Lhe government will ask EDF to sell more electricity at low prices to its competitors, in order to keep its promise to limit the increase in the electricity bill of the French to 4% in 2022, despite the surge in prices, announced the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, Thursday, January 13.
The government, which had already reduced as much as possible the main tax on electricity, a measure insufficient to contain this outbreak, will “implement an additional measure by increasing by 20 terawatt-hours (TWh) the volume of nuclear electricity sold at a reduced price. by EDF to its competitors, to increase it exceptionally from 100 to 120 TWh ”, announced the Minister in an interview published on the website of Parisian.
“These volumes will be accessible to all consumers, individuals, communities and professionals, via their supplier, according to terms that will be specified very soon,” said the Ministry of Ecological Transition in a press release. The Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) will be tasked with monitoring that electricity suppliers “will fully pass on the benefit to consumers,” adds the ministry. This measure will cost between 7.7 billion and 8.4 billion euros for EDF, estimated Bruno Le Maire.
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“No catching up in 2023”
At the end of September, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced “a tariff shield” on energy with in particular a limitation to 4% of the increase in regulated electricity tariffs in 2022. Prices, boosted by the global economic recovery, have continued to increase since the government’s announcement, but it has therefore not gone back on its word. Since December, he has been planning to raise this Arenh ceiling (“regulated access to historic nuclear electricity”) so that suppliers have more inexpensive electricity at a fixed price, even if it means slightly increasing the price paid to EDF.
While it is currently sold at 42 euros per MWh (instead of some 250 euros on the current market) by EDF to its competitors, the government has “proposed to raise this sale price from 42 to 46.2 euros / MWh , which makes it possible to reduce the bill for EDF ”, indicated Bruno Le Maire. When questioned, the Minister of the Economy assures us that this agreement will not lead to catching up in 2023. “There will be no catching up leading to a new increase in 2023. It is the State and EDF which will bear the cost of This measure “.
The government had already reduced to the maximum the main tax on electricity, by reducing it from 22.50 euros per megawatt hour (euro / MWh) to 50 centimes, “a decision which represents a tax loss for the State of 8 billion euros, ”said Bruno Le Maire. This measure “made it possible to cover about 15 points of increase in the price of electricity”, according to the minister, very “far from the 35% to come in two weeks”.
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“Suddenly, it will not be 40% of EDF production, but 50% which will be in permanent sales to the competition”, responded to Agence France Presse Philippe Page le Mérour, secretary (CGT) of EDF’s CESC on the evocation of this measure. He had already railed against this mechanism during the week, calling it a “poison” which contributes to EDF’s debt. The energy company is already grappling with further delays in the delivery of its new generation EPR nuclear reactor under construction in Flamanville (Manche) and corrosion problems on other reactors of previous generations which have been shut down.