PARIS (Reuters) -Striking workers at the Paluel nuclear power plant in northern France disrupted some 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of electricity supply from the site operated by state-owned power giant EDF on Tuesday, data from the company showed.
The disruption comes on the final day of salary negotiations, a spokesperson for the hardline CGT union told Reuters.
The nuclear supply disruptions concern the Paluel 2 and 4 reactors. The Paluel 3 reactor is offline for planned maintenance and the 1 reactor is operating normally.
A spokesperson for EDF said the strike was contained to local action.
About 1 GW of hydropower production was also affected earlier, but the disruption to that has now ended, EDF data showed.
The combined 2.5 GW of disrupted hydropower and nuclear supply was equivalent to about 4% of France’s overall electricity production at 1045 GMT, data from grid operator RTE showed. However, France was expected to remain a net power exporter throughout the day, RTE data showed.
European spot power prices for Wednesday reached multi-month highs earlier as wind power supply in neighbouring Germany is expected to drop to less than a third of Tuesday’s levels, while colder temperatures are also expected to drive up demand.
(Reporting by Forrest Crellin. Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter)
