France deal raises concerns over EDF dominance – Collective intelligence or failure?

The recent collapse of France’s minority government has deepened uncertainty about the future of a controversial deal state-owned EDF struck with the government a year ago with the aim of replacing the Arenh regulation.

Arenh, which expires in 2026, required EDF to sell about a third of its annual nuclear output to rival suppliers at a fixed rate of EUR 42/MWh, but this new deal does away with a fixed price and allows EDF to sell all its atomic output on the wholesale market.

The firm says it will aim to sell this output an average price of EUR 70/MWh via long-term supply contracts, auctions, and a tax on wholesale nuclear output. Not only has this provoked fierce criticism from rival suppliers and intensive power consumers who will probably be forced to pay more for their power supplies, but it has also spectacularly failed to attract any takers for EDF’s long-term supply contracts due to lower wholesale prices, potentially endangering the company’s ability to service its huge debts or maintain and expand its nuclear fleet.

So, what should France do next?  Reporting by Chris Eales, Editor France. Additional reporting by Caroline Pailliez. Contributor: Andreas Rudinger, energy transition expert, IDDRI.