The residential regulated electricity price in France will increase by 2.5% on 1 January 2013. This price hike could have been higher but was limited by the increase by €0.3c/kWh "only" in the "Contribution au Service Public de l'Electricité" (CSPE). The CSPE covers the connection cost of isolated systems and of renewable plants to the grid and is aimed at financing the feed-in tariffs. Successive governments have been reluctant to raise its level, despite the growing share of renewables in the power mix (and consequent growing feed-in tariffs volumes), leading to soaring charges for EDF.
According the calculations of the French Energy Regulation Commission (CRE), the CSPE should have been raised to €1.88c/kWh in 2013 to cover the financial charges occurring until 2013. However, the government failed to set a new CSPE amount before 31 December 2012, leading the CRE to apply an automatic increase of €0.3c/kWh. At €1.35c/kWh in 2013, the CSPE will only cover new charges in 2013 (estimated at €5.1bn) but not a €2.1bn debt corresponding to the year 2011 left for EDF.