nuclear-news

The state-controlled utility sold a quarter of the volume, or 4 terawatt-hours, to rivals, according to energy regulator Commission de Regulation de l’Energie. The 12.3 terawatt-hours sold for the first half was also less than half the 34.6 terawatt-hours for the second half of 2014.

The drop signals obstacles ahead for Chief Executive Officer Jean-Bernard Levy, who is pushing for higher power prices to help pay for tens of billions of euros of maintenance and safety upgrades on EDF’s aging fleet of French nuclear reactors, which account for three-quarters of the country’s electricity production.

“There is an imbalance between nuclear generation costs and wholesale power market prices,” said Louis Boujard, a utilities analyst at Oddo Securities in Paris. “Nuclear energy is less competitive than it was in the past.”Market Price

French electricity is bought and sold in the market on a year-ahead basis for 38.15 euros, or 9.2 percent below the Arenh price, according to broker data compiled by Bloomberg. The contract has dropped 4.6 percent since January and is trading at its lowest level for the time of year since at least 2007 when Bloomberg began tracking the data.

The government is reviewing how it calculates the rates charged for Arenh nuclear power. While EDF argues that it needs to increase the rate to better reflect the cost of generation, other power distributors such as Direct Energie and industrial consumers want a reduction. In the meantime, they are shunning the volumes in favor of cheaper power on the market………http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-10/edf-nuclear-power-struggles-to-compete-with-falling-market-price