French electricity prices turned negative as falling demand and rising renewable energy production prompted the shutdown of some nuclear reactors.
Daily consumption is predicted to fall by a mean of 6 gigawatts from Thursday to Sunday, in keeping with a Bloomberg model. Sunny and stormy weather has boosted solar and wind power generation, prompting the grid operator to ask Electricite de France SA to take several nuclear plants offline.
While more clean electricity is required across Europe to satisfy climate targets, rising renewable energy production and a scarcity of battery storage mean that reactors sometimes should be shut down in periods of low demand. This is becoming increasingly common in France – which gets around two-thirds of its electricity from its nuclear power stations – at weekends, and it’s also happening within the Nordic countries and Spain.
EDF has shut down its Golfech 2, Cruas 2 and Tricastin 1 nuclear power plants and plans to shut down three more over the weekend. Some renewable energy producers are also having to cut back their electricity production to avoid paying tariffs within the face of negative prices.
The French day-ahead electricity price fell to -5.76 euros per megawatt hour at an auction on Epex Spot, the bottom value in 4 years. The corresponding contract in Germany fell to 7.64 euros.
