France’s 2022 electricity generation at lowest in 30 years: Report

France’s electricity generation has been at its lowest in 30 years, electricity network RTE said Thursday.

RTE’s yearly report said total electricity generation has been at 445.2 Terawatt hours (TWh) in 2022, the lowest since 1992 due to low nuclear and hydraulic production.

Generation was also 15% lower than the previous year, said RTE.

The nuclear availability in France has been remarkably low in 2022, with a rate of 54% compared to the average of 73% from 2015 – 2019.

Nuclear sources constituted of only 62.7% of France’s electricity generation in 2022, according to the report. This was 69% in 2021.

As a result, nuclear production was at its lowest since 1988. With 279 TWh produced in 2022, which equals 63% of the total production in the country, nuclear production dropped 30% compared to the average level of the last two decades, said RTE.

Consequently, France became a net importer of electricity in 2022 for the first time since 1980.

At the beginning of the fall of 2022, France risked serious network strain due to the energy crisis, weather conditions and the delayed launch date of nuclear power stations.

Power cuts have been forecast, which triggered debates between the government and electricity distributors.

• Terawatt hours