The bad news was expected, but even so it caused an impact due to its magnitude. Électricité de France (EDF) announced yesterday the worst results in its history: it lost more than 17,900 million euros in 2022 and accumulates a debt of 64,500 million. A very difficult scenario is outlined in the coming years, a heavy burden for the French State, which will soon own 100% of the company.
There are several reasons for EDF's precarious situation. The breakdowns and costly maintenance of some old nuclear power plants and victims of corrosion, as well as the rate cap imposed by the Government, have a lot of weight. Own production fell last year and EDF had to buy very expensive electricity on the European market.
Knowing the serious problem that was coming, the French Government announced last July the total renationalization of EDF, considered a strategic company of the first order. Only the State, in fact, will be able to guarantee the payment of such a large debt and face the enormous investments necessary to build the six new generation nuclear reactors promised by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron.
The paradoxical circumstance arises that the record losses suffered by EDF coincide with an unprecedented turnover of 143,500 million euros, 70% more than the previous year, due to the rise in energy prices.
The EDF crisis comes from afar. His management was not exemplary, partly due to the neglect of the politicians they had to supervise. To this has been added a dramatic miscalculation and geopolitical circumstances. France wanted to gradually reduce its dependence on nuclear power but the war in Ukraine has completely changed the paradigm. Atomic power plants are now seen as an essential resource to ensure supply and national sovereignty. In the French case, it cannot also be forgotten that nuclear energy is linked, from a technological point of view, to national security. France is the only country in the European Union that has atomic weapons. The civil and the military are, in this case, inseparable realities.
The aging of the nuclear park is a serious matter. Some plants at the end of their operational life will have to delay their retirement. That generates costs to keep them safe. Another problem is the lack of technical personnel, nuclear engineers and highly-skilled workers, such as welders. It is believed that, in a period of ten years, the sector will need to employ 80,000 people, according to the newspaper Le Parisien. But his training is not improvised. These are very sophisticated, high-tech jobs. As an example, to carry out welding in reactor facilities, work is done remotely, by means of robots, and using satellite connections.
