French transmission system operator (TSO) RTE has unveiled its forecast report for the 2019-2023 period and concludes that the French electricity system will be balanced but without margins until 2020 due to the closure of some thermal production capacity resources in recent years.
Safety margins should reappear after the winter 2020, allowing the closure of the last domestic coal-fired power plants located in Cordemais (Loire Atlantique), Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), Gardanne (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Saint-Avold (Moselle), as well as the closure of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant (Haut-Rhin) by 2023.
RTE estimates that France can pass through the next winters without a hitch but also depicts a rapidly changing domestic power system and warns that the country cannot schedule any additional power plant closures besides the Fessenheim nuclear plant and the five remaining coal-fired units, on grounds relating to security of supply.