The electrician suffered an abyssal net loss of 17.9 billion euros in 2022. He attributes it to the considerable drop in the availability of his nuclear fleet, but also to the price shield put in place by the government .
by Marjorie Cessac and Adrien Pécout
Almost a quarter after his appointment in the Council of Ministers, Luc Rémont did not cut it. At the desk, the new EDF boss presented, Friday, February 17, the worst annual results in the history of the electrician. In reverse of the 5.1 billion euros in profits of 2021, the group deplores an abyssal net loss of 17.9 billion euros in 2022. At the same level as the industrial disasters of France Telecom or Vivendi, at the beginning of 2000. All this despite an increase in turnover by the energy price crisis: 143.5 billion euros (+ 70 % from one year to the next). All accompanied by a debt, also unprecedented, of 64.5 billion euros.
Two factors “strongly penalized” the company, underlines Rémont. First, the considerable decline in the availability of its nuclear fleet and, therefore, that of its production: 279 terawattheures (TWh), very far from the 430 TWh in 2005. Never had she hoked so low since 1988, time where the operator had not yet completed the commissioning of his current reactor fleet.
Detected on auxiliary pipes, at the end of 2021, a phenomenon of corrosion under stress resulted in prolonged stops for control or maintenance. Starting with those of the most powerful reactors, the pair of civals (Vienne) and that of Chooz (Ardennes). To this drop in production is added that of hydroelectricity (32 TWh, – 22 %), unlike wind and solar (almost 25 TWh, + 18 %).
The second factor is due to the “exceptional regulatory measures implemented in France under difficult market conditions”, according to Luc Rémont. Clearly, the government’s price shield. In the name of the purchasing power of households in the face of inflation, the executive noted the volume of the ARENH, the regulated access to historic nuclear electricity. Since a law at the end of 2010, EDF has been obliged to sell part of its nuclear electricity to alternative suppliers at a fixed price. A system originally established to respond to European market liberalization directives. 2>
“poison” of the ARENH
In times of priced prices on the wholesale market, this combination of a loss of production and a sale at broken prices turned out to be a diabolical trap. As early as 2021, the former CEO, Jean-Bernard Lévy, for once agree with the inter-union, qualified the mechanism of the Arenh “poison”.
The disposal of the initial volume of this broken price electricity has, in fact, led to a shortfall of 8 billion euros in 2022, according to the electrician. Not only did EDF produced less nuclear in 2022, but the shareholder state asked him to release 120 TWh instead of 100 TWh under ARENH. Or 43 % of production, even if it means having to buy the surplus already sold on the wholesale market at the high price … and then resell it to more than ten times cheaper.
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