2023-06-25 18:00:00
Access to abundant, carbon-free and competitive electricity is a sine qua non for reindustrialising France. But how to find common ground between industrialists, on the one hand, and EDF on the other, whose interests are, by definition, diametrically opposed? The former logically wish to access the most attractive price per megawatt hour possible, which would further damage the economic health of the latter, whose debt peaks at 65 billion euros.
While a standoff seems to be engaged between the State and EDF, which does not wish to be sacrificed on the altar of reindustrialization, the government is trying to show that a solution is possible. Tomorrow, the Minister for Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher and the Minister for Industry Roland Lescure will travel to the Savoyard Alps, to the site of Trimet France, one of the largest aluminum smelters in France, which supplies automotive, marine and rail industries. Objective: formalize the signing of a long-term supply contract between the historical electrician and the factory specializing in the manufacture of aluminum wire.
A lower price than the market
In detail, this ten-year contract will take effect from 2024 and will cover a volume of 22 terawatt hours, which will cover all of the plant’s electrical needs at full capacity. This is a renewal at the end of a first contract for a period of ten years also.
After long months of negotiations, the two parties managed to agree on a price. Confidential, it will be partly indexed to the price of aluminum. Above all, it will be lower than market prices, assures the government, without however specifying its level compared to that of the Arenh (42 euros per megawatt hour). And this, thanks to a lead in the lead “ quite significant “. The contract is also subject to risk sharing.
« The commercial discussions took place under the benevolent eye of the State, which was committed to ensuring that the negotiations went well “Explains the entourage of the two ministers concerned. “This contract will guarantee the sustainability of the company and therefore the jobs that go with it, i.e. around 700 employees”, we congratulate each other. “It’s a good example of what you can do when you manage to find the way to the peak between energy company and industrialist”, also argue the cabinets of ministers.
An “atypical” agreement
However, this agreement is very atypical » et “exceptional”we recognize, because “ its whole balance rests on the fact that EDF is a shareholder and knows the accounts of Trimet “. Since 2013, the electrician has held 34% of Trimet France. There is therefore no information asymmetry.
EDF is not intended to become the owner of the tricolor heavy industry, this type of contract, as it stands, could not be duplicated. The government is therefore counting on the reform of the electricity market, which is currently being played out in Brussels, to obtain a legal framework precisely allowing cost regulation within long-term supply contracts.
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