French grid operator RTE announced on December 22 that France had exported record electricity to its European neighbors. On the same day, France delivered 18,680 megawatts of electricity to neighboring countries, breaking the previous record of 17,415 megawatts set in February 2019.
This achievement is due to the higher availability of French nuclear power plants, the right temperatures and holiday factors.
RTE noted that at 4 p.m. that day, the export capacity "reserved" by the market reached a staggering 18,680 megawatts. Major buyers include the United Kingdom (3 GW), Germany and the Benelux countries (54 GW), Switzerland (32 GW), Italy (44 GW) and Spain (26 gw）。Temperature played a key role in this record-breaking export.
"At the moment, consumer demand in France is relatively low due to the holiday factor," RTE explained. In addition, last week's high temperatures, especially on Thursday, "could be 4 to 6 ° C higher than in the normal season", which further reduced the country's needs.
In contrast to the situation in 2022, the availability of all means of production, especially nuclear energy, has increased this year.
In the past year, a considerable number of nuclear power plants have been effectively controlled and repaired. This makes the risk of blackouts much less this winter, compared to last year, when France had to import electricity due to corrosion problems in nuclear reactors, which has not been seen in the past 42 years.
Grid operator RTE is optimistic about this winter, arguing that the risk of blackouts is "low", unlike last year, when the stress corrosion crisis rendered many reactors unusable and reduced nuclear production to its lowest level in 30 years. This optimism builds on the significant achievements of the past year.