Heatwave in Europe shuts down French nuclear plants
The heatwave that has swept across western Europe on Wednesday reduced France's nuclear production as the high temperatures in the country made it difficult to get water to cool the reactors.
Data from French utility EDF revealed that output was reduced by 4.1 Gigawatts or?7% of the total power demand.
In some parts of France, temperatures have risen to 40 degrees Celsius. This, coupled with reduced wind speed, has led to a rise in wholesale electricity prices.
The wholesale spot electricity prices in France, Germany and the UK reached their highest levels since mid-January 20,25 on Tuesday as electricity systems struggled to cope with the heat. They relied heavily on gas generation.
Data from grid operator RTE shows that France has also been a net exporter to its neighbours of low-cost electricity. However, as temperatures rose, exports dropped.
Exports to France fell to 3 GW in the afternoon on Wednesday, compared to the 10 GW-12 GW that were recorded at the same time last week. This reduced the supply to neighbours to a cheaper level and lowered the profits of transmission.
Alessandro Armenia, a Kpler analyst, said: "Climate Change is showing how extreme heat can cause as much disruption as (price spikes due to cold weather and low renewables)."
He said: "We're surprised right now, but next summer we can expect similar dynamics. Climate change is unavoidable."
Heat has reduced the output of the Saint-Alban 2, Bugey 3 and Nogent 2 reactors, located on the Seine river southeast of Paris.
Due to heat, the Golfech 2 reactor in the southwest France region of the Garonne River was shut down late Monday.
French environmental regulations require EDF, the nuclear operator in France, to reduce production when river temperatures exceed a certain threshold. This is to protect local eco-systems.
The current heatwave was not known to last for how long. It is driven by an Omega block weather pattern, so named because of its shape. This allows temperatures to rise day after day.
The World Meteorological Organisation said that Europe's warming rate is?more then twice as high as the global average. This makes heat waves?increasingly probable.
In Europe, the power system is becoming more reliant upon renewable energy generation. The evening solar drop is replaced by baseload power generated from coal, nuclear and gas. This drives up prices as the sun sets.
Kpler data shows that nearly all countries, including France, have seen a rise in thermal generation (including gas and coal) at night, even though gas-fired generation there is typically minimal.
The pattern this week is exacerbated 'by an overall higher cooling requirement and below-normal wind generating capacity, requiring more gas-fired electricity,' said LSEG analyst, Nathalie Gerl.
She added that this week was an exception, since the summer had seen a regular oversupply of electricity on the market. Reporting by Tristan Veyet, Hugo Lhomedet and Forrest Crellin from Gdansk; editing by Tomasz Janowski and Jason Neely
(source: Reuters)
