Skip to main content

Total will enter French electricity retail market

French oil and gas upstream group has announced that it would start selling electricity to non-household customers in France in 2016 and that it targeted an 8% market share within 10 years. The company is already active on the gas market, selling 22 TWh to 20,000 business customers (35,000 sites).

The company will benefit from the end of "yellow" and "green" tariffs proposed by EDF to large consumers (36 kVA), i.e. the end of regulated electricity tariffs for business consumers as of 1 January 2016. So far, only 12% of eligible consumers have subscribed to a market contract and 423,000 sites still have to choose a market offer.

Low wholesale electricity prices since 2014 have enabled alternative suppliers such as ENGIE, E.ON or Direct Energie to offer lower tariffs than EDF. Total, which will purchase power on the wholesale market, expects this situation to continue over 2016. The group aims to supply electricity and gas to 175,000 sites within 10 years and to triple its sales volumes (2/3 gas and 1/3 electricity).

Global energy reports

Interested in Global Energy Research?

Enerdata's premium online information service provides up-to-date market reports on 110+ countries. The reports include valuable market data and analysis as well as a daily newsfeed, curated by our energy analysts, on the oil, gas, coal and power markets.

This user-friendly tool gives you the essentials about the domestic markets of your concern, including market structure, organisation, actors, projects and business perspectives.

Request a free trial Contact us