France's CRE proposes to raise EDF power sales under ARENH by 8% in 2023

To limit the rise in electricity prices, the French Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) has recommended that the government should set the amount of nuclear power EDF will sell to competitors in 2023 under the ARENH (Accès régulé à l'électricité nucléaire historique) scheme at 130 TWh up from 120 TWh in 2022, at a price of €49.5/MWh - compared with a price cap of 42-46.2/MWh for 2022. The ARENH law (2010) obliges EDF to sell part of its nuclear generation (up to 100 TWh/year, i.e., around a quarter of its production) to alternative suppliers on the wholesale market at a regulated price (“ARENH price”), which has been set by the CRE at €42/MWh since 2012. In early December 2021, the CRE received requests for 160 TWh of nuclear power generation under the ARENH mechanism from alternative suppliers for 2022, which is 10% more than in the previous year (146 TWh). As demand was higher than the 100 TWh cap, the regulator decided that all the 81 electricity suppliers that passed an order would receive around 62% of the amount they requested.

In January 2022, the French government forced EDF to sell an additional 20 TWh of nuclear power generation in 2022 under the ARENH to alternative suppliers at €46.2/MWh to limit the rise in electricity tariffs. In addition, the authorities have postponed a portion of the 2022 tariff increase over a 12-month period starting from 1 February 2023, applying to the residential and “blue professional” regulated tariffs customers, as well as to all professional customers located in the non-interconnected zones, to limit their tariff increase of February 2022 at 4%.