How many terawatt hours have we consumed? How many have been produced? How much was nuclear? How much was imported? This is one of the missions of French electricity network (RTE), the manager of the French electricity network: drawing up France’s electricity balance sheet for the past year.
Necessarilythe 2022 report, published this Thursday, has a particular resonance, as the energy has returned in force to the concerns of the French. Xavier Piechaczyk, Chairman of the Executive Board of RTE, speaks of a context “unprecedented since the oil shocks of 1970”, and far from being limited to the gas crisis. However, “France has shown its resilience and its security of supply has been guaranteed”, insists Xavier Piechaczyk. Without blackout, this giant and uncontrolled blackout that many feared. A look back at the four lessons from this 2022 electricity report.
The French consumed less
“Electricity consumption in France fell from 467 terawatt hours in 2021 to 459 in 2022, i.e. a decrease of 1.7% (at normal temperature*)”, indicates Thomas Veyrenc, director in charge of the strategy, forecasting and evaluation division at RTE . This 2022 consumption was also 0.4% lower than that of 2020. But these two years, disrupted by Covid-19, were marked by fairly low electricity consumption in France. It is therefore better to compare with the average values between 2014 and 2019. The year 2022 then appears to be down by 4.2%. “A very significant decrease, continues Thomas Veyrenc. It is all the more so since it was obtained over a very concentrated period, with a very clear break in September. Over the last months of the year, the drop in consumption is 9% compared to the 2014-2019 period. »
Thomas Veyrenc specifies that this drop is not the only fact of the industry. “Certainly, this is the sector where the declines are seen first because it is the most exposed to variations in electricity prices, he begins. But this decrease of 9% over the last months of the year also comes a lot from the residential sector, the majority consumer sector in France, and from the tertiary sector. As for knowing what prompted the French the most to reduce their consumption, RTE of course cites the surge in energy prices, but do not forget the awareness campaigns for more sobriety. “When we look at the timing of the cuts, it seems quite clear that the latter played a very important role”, assures Thomas Veyrenc.
Nuclear and hydraulics are failing
It’s not just consumption that has fallen in France. Our production did the same. This is the other strong figure in the report: “it fell from 522 TWh in 2021 to 445 in 2022, i.e. a decrease of around 15%. “You have to go back to 1992 to find such a level of production,” says Thomas Veyrenc.
It must be said that our 56 nuclear reactors, on which our electricity mix is mainly based, were not at the party. Concentration of outages for maintenance, checks related to stress corrosion, etc. The availability of the nuclear fleet [sa capacité à produire] reached “its lowest level since 1988”, says Xavier Piechaczyk. It was on average at 54% in 2022, compared to 73% a year earlier. In the end, nuclear production fell by 30% compared to the average of the last 20 years, and by nearly 23% compared to 2021. RTE estimates, however, that France has succeeded in placing a maximum of these shutdowns in the spring and in the summer, the less critical periods, and that the availability rate has gradually increased this winter.
Less publicized,‘hydraulic was also in crisis last year, not spared by the exceptional drought. Although the sector has remained the second source of electricity production in France, its production has nevertheless decreased by 20% compared to the average over the period 2014-2021. “It has reached its lowest level since 1976, adds Xavier Piechaczyk.
Thanks to the neighbors
Direct consequence of this drop in production: we had to turn to our neighbours. France has thus gone from being a net exporter of electricity (+43.3 TWh in 2021) to a net importer (-16.5 TWh). This had not happened since 1980. “France was an importer throughout 2022, with the exception of February and May, details Thomas Veyrenc. But most of these imports took place in the summer, when the unavailability of the nuclear fleet was at its maximum. “Which makes him say that the balance of France could return to positive in 2023. “Even if nuclear production will remain low, it will not be as much as in 2022, he continues. In January [2023], France was already a net exporter. »
Growing greenhouse gas emissions
Greenhouse gas emissions related to our electricity production fell from 21.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2eq) to 25 MtCO2eq. However, coal continued to decline in 2021, despite this tense context. “It only provides a marginal share (0.6%) of our electricity production”, points out Maïté Jaureguy-Naudin, director of statistics and data valuation at RTE.
At the same time, renewable energies (Enr) continued to grow. The commissioning of France’s first offshore wind farm, off Saint-Nazaire, is just one example. 2022 was punctuated by a record number of renewable energy installations commissioned, with five gigawatts of installed power. On the production side, “wind power continued to progress despite a year with little wind,” continues Maïté Jaureguy-Naudin. But it is above all solar that has done well, surfing on a large number of new installations, but also good sunshine over the year. Its production has increased by 30% compared to 2022.”
If the carbon footprint of our electricity production has deteriorated, it is due to increased use of French gas-fired power stations. “The sector has been in great demand to compensate for the historic decline in production in nuclear and hydropower, explains Maïté Jaureguy-Naudin. To the point of becoming the third source of French electricity production last year. RTE specifies, however, that the electricity produced in France remains among the most carbon-free in Europe, in third place behind Sweden and Finland.
* corrected for weather conditions.