French Nuclear Availability Rises

French nuclear availability rose significantly in the first week of December compared to previous weeks, EdF remit data show.

• French nuclear reactors were operating at around 61% of capacity on Thursday, compared with 57% at the beginning of the week on Monday.
• Nuclear availability is expected to further rise in the first week of December.
• The 915MW St Laurent 2 reactor is ramping up for 2 Dec restart.
• The 910MW Bugey 2 reactor is ramping up for 1 Dec restart.
• The 915MW Cruas 3 reactor is ramping up for 3 Dec restart.
• The 1.3GW reactor Cattenom 4 will return 1 Dec, extended from 30 Nov.
• The 1.3GW reactor Flammanville will return 2 Dec, extended from 1 Dec.
• The restart of St Alban 2 has been extended to 14 Dec, from 4 Dec previously.
• France’s power consumption is estimated to peak at 75GW in the coming seven days, up from 66.2GW in the last week of November, supported by colder weather and increased heating demand expectation, RTE data show.
• Colder temperatures have also supported demand for gas output. Gas-fired output so far this week averaged 8.35GW, compared with 5.31GW a week earlier, Entso-e data show.
• French natural gas reserves stood at 97.44% of capacity on 29 Nov, AGSI data show.