

France's Power Market Seen Balanced This Winter - Agency

    By Geraldine Amiel

    PARIS--France's power grid agency RTE Thursday said the French power market should be balanced this winter, with no supply shortages in sight even if there is unusually cold weather like a year ago.

    Demand should be easily matched by supplies in the short term in France, said RTE, a fully-owned subsidiary of France's power giant Electricite de France SA (EDF.FR).

    For the past 50 years, the country has relied on nuclear energy for around 75% of its electricity and had never feared any supply shortages, until the question of replacing or extending the life of the aging French nuclear reactors emerged over the past few years. France, which had been a net power exporter around Europe for more than 40 years, had to import large amounts of power from Germany to meet demand at peak times, notably over the winter. This hurt national pride.

    More of EDF's nuclear reactors should be available this winter compared with the same time last year, preventing the need to import power, RTE said.

    But beyond 2016, the supply-and-demand balance could be an issue, RTE said.

    Some of France's coal and gas capacities are being stopped and the French government is seeking to lower the nuclear share in France's energy mix to 50% from currently 75%, and boost renewable sources instead. And even the expected drop in demand, due to the lasting impact of the economic crisis, won't offset the imbalance, RTE said, and it called for the building of new power generation capacities.

    RTE's call echoed a recent move by 10 European energy groups' leaders, including GDF Suez SA (GSZ.FR), RWE.AG (RWE.XE) and Spain's Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC) to pressure European governments to stop subsidies in favor of renewables, which has led many of the companies to mothball some of their traditional power generation plants that have become too expensive to run.

    Renewable capacities are "intermittent," as they depend upon the weather--wind and sun--to produce power. This means that traditional capacities are needed to compensate the lack of renewable power when there is no sun and no wind.

    -Write to Geraldine Amiel at
