POWER
France’s hydropower reserves last week – calendar week 40 – decreased by 0.64 percentage points to 85.4% of capacity, RTE data showed.
- Stocks narrowed the surplus to the five-year average to 13.9 points last week, down from 14.2 points the week before, which was the highest surplus so far this year.
- Reserves, however, widened the surplus over 2023 levels to 10 points, from 8.7 points the week prior and the highest surplus since February.
- France’s hydropower output from reservoirs last week increased by 424MW to 1.58GW.
- Run-of-river generation last week rose by 1GW to 4.87GW.
- Output from pumped storage edged down by 157MW on the week to 1.34GW.
- Nuclear generation last week increased by 876MW to 37.94GW.
- Solar PV output last week edged up by 196MW to 2.56GW, while wind output declined by 1.32GW to 6.07GW.
- Power demand in France last week increased to 44.89GW, up from 43GW the week before.
- Precipitation in the hydro-intensive region of Grenoble last week was broadly in line with the seasonal average and totalled 20.5mm.
- Looking forward, the latest weather forecast for Grenoble for this week suggested precipitation to total 78.8mm, well above the 30-year normal of 19.7mm, supporting inflows into reserves.
- Mean temperatures in Paris are forecast between 9.5-14.5C this week, likely supporting some power demand for electric heating.
- France’s hydrological balance is forecast to remain positive until at least 22 October and is forecast to end this week at +5.62TWh.
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