Heat-related problems are exacerbated by the closure of a French gas plant

The high temperatures of the Mediterranean Sea impacted on cooling water availability, putting further pressure on a system that already faces reduced nuclear output. Early summer heatwaves have caused temperatures to rise to unheard of levels in Europe, causing wildfires and water shortages. The French utility EDF?issued an order to restrict production for the 930 megawatt Martigues power plant. This is the first time in this summer that the heat has forced a French gas-fired plant offline. The plant's last outage was in 2022. This outage is in addition to the 4.9 gigawatts that are not available due to high temperatures on rivers. A further 2.5?GW of nuclear capacity is unavailable due to low river levels. TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED to fall, but the drought is worsening. Gas-fired 'power makes up a comparatively small portion of France's energy mix. Nuclear energy, on the other hand, makes up approximately 70% of its total supply. About 14% of France’s total energy capacity is affected by the nuclear outages. Thibault Laconde of the climate data analytics company Callendar said, "We've seen two waves in climate-related outages that were unprecedented both in severity and timing. They affected reactors that weren't normally affected." Due to high temperatures on Friday, additional nuclear reactors will regulate their output. An outage at the Bugey 3 reactor should end Friday evening when temperatures cool. On July 25, a heat-related outage at the Golfech 2 reactor in southern France will be over. Due to low water levels in the Meuse river, which is part of a water sharing agreement with Belgium, around 2.5 GW are offline at the Chooz nuclear plant. MeteoFrance has said that the heatwave in France is likely to continue to subside over the next few days. By the weekend, the high temperatures are expected to be mostly confined to the south-east. The drought in France has been getting worse day by day, since May's end, due to a lack of rainfall and exceptionally high temperatures.

(source: Reuters)