In 2010, the power was going to be more lenient than in 2009. Last year at this time, the clouds were gathering over EDF, raising fears a dreaded scenario: power cuts. Not only Meteo-France was involved in the incumbent a "signal hot", ie a risk of drought, but especially nuclear fleet suffered from a long strike. In addition, there were maintenance delayed massive enough to cause a moment to stop one third of the 58 reactors. At the time, Prime Minister Francois Fillon, had also publicly worried about the situation.
The state park remains a major project
This time, the concern is not the same. Fifteen units are presently closed, a current threshold at this time.EDF enjoy summer to restore the park in preparation for the winter, much more greedy for power. By comparison, in January, peak consumption are regularly found around 90,000 megawatt hours (MWh), while in August, we do not exceed an average of 55,000 MWh.
"There is no risk of power failure for the portfolio company's customers," says Philip Torrioni Director optimization upstream-downstream and trading, while recalling that EDF has the "stacking of multiple means of production ': in addition to nuclear, hydro, fossil-fired (fuel oil and coal) or purchase obligations (cogeneration, wind …).
Note that EDF considers the situation of hydraulics "generally satisfactory", the streams and filling reservoirs for dams being at favorable levels."On this last point, we are even slightly in surplus," says Patrick Tourasse, in charge of coordination of water at EDF.
As for the effects of the strike last year, they are now digested, said Philippe Druelle, the delegate operational nuclear generation. This does not preclude occasional conflicts: Friday, the Inter Power Plant Flamanville announced the resumption of work after five days of strike any of its services after signing an agreement on creation of ten posts.
However, even if EDF is reassuring for the coming summer, the state park remains a major project for the company. In case the rate of availability of its stations, which dropped to 78% last year, far from that of other major utilities such as GDF Suez nuclear operator in Belgium. In the medium term, Henri Proglio, the chairman of EDF, is the bar of 85%.A major objective of financial terms because in terms of availability, each point less cost around 200 million euros to the company.
To remedy the situation the company began to invest heavily to replace large components of its plants. It also plans to optimize a number of operating procedures. With the desire to obtain tangible results from this year.
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