EDF on Tuesday claimed compensation of 8.34 billion euros from the state following the government’s decision to allocate additional volumes of cheap nuclear electricity to its competitors. This measure was intended to limit the rise in bills.
“EDF today filed a contentious appeal before the Council of State, and a claim for compensation, for an amount estimated to date at 8,340 million euros, before the State”, its main shareholder, the group indicates in a press release.
It is to contain, as promised, the increase in regulated electricity prices to 4% in 2022 that the government has forced EDF to increase by 20% the annual quota of electricity sold at a reduced price to its competitors, up to 120 TWh. (compared to the previous 100 TWh).
This sale is carried out within the framework of the mechanism called “Regulated access to historical nuclear electricity” (Arenh), regularly denounced by EDF. The group is thus forced to sell its production at a bargain price, at a time when electricity reaches peaks in the wholesale markets.
Sink into your bottom line
Following this decision, EDF had warned of a drop in its financial result in 2022, attributing it in particular to the raising of the Arenh roof.
The State’s decision had been formalized in a decree on March 11 and then in two decrees. EDF indicates on Tuesday that its approach is based on “an in-depth legal analysis” and “in view of the damage suffered” by virtue of these texts.
“The president and CEO of EDF had indicated during its annual general meeting that he had sent the State a prior administrative appeal to request the withdrawal of the decree and the orders of March 2022 related to this allocation” of additional nuclear volumes, recalls the group .
Jean-Bernard Lévy, whose state now wants to accelerate the succession in the framework of the planned renationalisation of EDF, had announced an appeal in May. “Both the price and the conditions of these awards penalize us considerably,” he argued.
Source: BFM TV
