PARIS (Reuters) -French power grid operator RTE said France’s nuclear capacity in February was expected to remain around the relatively low level recorded last winter, but there was little risk to power supply as mild weather was expected in the coming weeks.
Still, the RTE said it was necessary to maintain a heightened level of vigilance in case of a cold wave lasting several consecutive days, low wind production or a sharp decline in nuclear availability.
The group added that these factors could lead to industrial disruption, and the certainty of this occurring would be increased if those factors happened at the same time, but stressed that these are not blackout situations involving a generalized loss of electricity.
The current maintenance schedule now allows between nine and 13 reactors to be shut down during the month of February depending on the week, either for standard maintenance or following identification of additional corrosion defects, RTE said.
The total is expected to increase in March to between 12 and 19 reactors.
Nuclear power capacity is expected to be around 50 gigawatts (GW) for the start of February, and is then set to fall to between 46 to 38 GW by the end of the month, said the RTE.
RTE said that the three, 900-megawatt (MW) reactors expected to return online in March will be the subject of “special attention”, as another six reactors are expected to go into maintenance during February.
In January, the nuclear fleet reached its lowest level ever with an average of around 48 GW of available capacity for the month, it added.
Low availability combined with cold temperatures resulted in a situation where France was a near constant power importer, it said, but there was no tension on the supply demand balance.
France is generally a net power exporter.
State-controlled power group EDF and the French nuclear safety authority ASN are expected to implement a strategy to control the corrosion that took five nuclear reactors offline, which will have consequences in terms of supply beyond this winter, added the RTE.
The effect of the outages will be reported in coming seasonal analyses and balance sheet forecasts, RTE said.
The outages at the five reactors that were taken offline following the detection of welding faults were extended in mid-January.
Both industrial and household demand remained flat compared to the first half of winter, despite high market prices, the grid operator said.
Demand is still below the level observed before the COVID-19 crisis, it added.
Also, due to consumer protection measures implemented since the autumn, the price of electricity billed to consumers is among the lowest in Europe, RTE said.
Following a decree, the maximum operating time of coal-fired power plants was increased to around 1,000 hours over the first two months of 2022 to make up for supply shortfalls.
As of Feb. 2, the units concerned have already operated between 390 and 470 hours, RTE data showed.
RTE said hydropower supplies were good and near historical average levels, despite heavy demand on the installations during the month of January.
(Reporting by Forrest Crellin;Editing by Dominique Vidalon and Kim Coghill)
