EDF’s nuclear electricity production is still likely to be affected in 2024 by construction projects, with an estimate of between 315 and 345 terawatt hours (TWh), according to initial forecasts published by the group.
For the time being, this is an estimate, as the “associated maintenance schedule (of the reactors) is being consolidated”, EDF said on Tuesday.
“The estimate of nuclear production 2024 is explained by a dense industrial program and the continued implementation of the program of control of nuclear reactors in the context of the phenomenon of stress corrosion,” discovered last winter, a spokesman explained to AFP.
These production levels remain well below those recorded in 2018 (393 TWh) and even in 2019 (379.5 TWh), when the scheduled maintenance program for the period 2019-2024 started, according to a “particularly busy” schedule.
The corrosion problems discovered last winter and this maintenance program, delayed by the Covid crisis, are making a large part of the nuclear fleet unavailable and affecting EDF’s nuclear production, which is expected to reach an all-time low in 2022.
The electricity group has indeed revised downwards its production forecasts for 2022, to a level between 280 and 300 TWh, and “probably the lower half of the range”, according to a spokesman.
Half of its 56 reactors were shut down as of Tuesday for corrosion problems or scheduled maintenance. This situation poses threats to electricity supply this winter in France, against the backdrop of the European energy crisis and soaring prices fueled by the post-Covid recovery and the start of the war in Ukraine.
For 2023, EDF is maintaining its nuclear generation targets at 300-330 TWh, compared with 340-370 TWh previously.
