French power generation capacity down on strikes

National strike action has resulted in availability cuts at French nuclear, thermal and hydropower plants. The strike notice is valid until this evening but protests could continue further.

A total of 7GW of capacity was affected by the strikes, according to industry union CGT's estimates. Available French hydropower capacity fell by 460MW this morning. Unavailability peaked at 1.2GW on Wednesday at 17:38 local time, more than three hours before the official start of the strike notice.

On the nuclear side, about 10 reactors had their capacity partly of fully curtailed today owing to the strike, EdF Remit data show. This adds to the 915MW Saint Laurent 2 unit having its capacity limited ahead of its planned maintenance on Friday.

Gas and coal-fired plants have not been spared by the strike. The 465MW Martigues-Ponteau 5 gas-fired unit was set to be fully unavailable until at least 15:00, while the 580MW Cordemais 4 and 5 coal-fired units have been fully off line owing to strikes since as early as 12-13 January. Gas-fired generation stood at 5.5GW this morning compared with an average output of 3.5GW so far in January, French transmission system operator (TSO) RTE data show.

In the intra-day market, prices were running at an average premium of €39.56/MWh to the equivalent hours in the day-ahead market as of the early afternoon.

Unions are protesting against the pension reform unveiled by the government last week. Prior to the strike, they had mentioned production restrictions and voluntary power cuts as potential tools for showing their discontent.

RTE on Wednesday warned about uncertainties over nuclear availability in the coming weeks, maintaining a three out of five level of alert on power security of supply for the winter. Factors driving that uncertainty were mainly the impact of the strike and the results of corrosion checks, the TSO said.

By Tatiana Serova