What we know about these legal texts
By the end of 2023, the Government plans to present two pieces of legislation. According to the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, one of these legal texts aims to reform the governance of the nuclear safety system and the other to allow regain control of electricity prices and adapt energy production to France’s climate commitments.
Nuclear safety
Concerning nuclear safety, the desire is to melt theInstitute of Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) In the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN). This first project is highly contested, since its detractors fear a loss of independence and quality of expertise, but also a lack of transparency towards the public. The objective of this law would be for the ASN to then be able to decide the fate of the power plants to adapt and facilitate decision-making, which would allow for more fluid management. It would then be one of the largest nuclear safety authorities in the world.
Maintaining electricity prices
As for the second law, it involves setting up a sustainable system which, in terms of electricity, would make it possible to maintain the lowest prices in Europe. You should know that, from one country to another, the price of electricity differs and that France is a fairly good student in this area with prices among the lowest in Europe.
But what the Government wants are prices that remain compatible with competitiveness while remaining accessible to households and industrialists, thanks to the nuclear fleet and negotiations with EDF. With this objective, prices should be announced as early as October. The objective of this law is to prevent excessive price increases, as we have experienced in recent months.
Increase in electricity production
Another objective concerns the climate and multi-year programming for energy production sector by sector. It is a question, through these laws, of granting greater importance to renewable energies thanks to the doubling of biogas and photovoltaic production. Likewise, the minister wants to accelerate the installation of marine wind turbines in order to be able to launch a major call for tenders by early 2025.
The program also includes the relaunch of nuclear power with EDF and an increase in investments for battery-type storage, such as hydroelectric pumped energy stations.
A number of disagreements
Not everyone agrees on the subject. Indeed, the discussions in Brussels highlighted dissensions between countries on the place to be given to French nuclear power. The State and the management of EDF, as we saw previously, are also at odds. You should know that the State is a 100% shareholder in EDF and would like to force it to set prices more in line with production costs.
This is where the problem lies, because EDF is burdened with record-breaking debt and wants to set its prices more freely to get out of it, mainly thanks to major contracts on the markets with important customers.