| Producible hydropower generation | Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. |
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| Radiation protection | Radiation protection Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. At a power plant, ionising radiation sources are numerous: the fuel itself, equipment activated by neutron flux (particularly that which is close to the core, such as tanks or lids) and particles from corrosion of the primary circuit of reactors and carried by the primary fluid. The level of exposure of a person is quantified by the dose equivalent in Sieverts (Sv). The total dose equivalents, called “collective dosimetry” and expressed in man-sieverts, is used as an indicator of dose received by all participating persons. The mobilisation of ground players has allowed a continuous improvement of performance on the protection of employees against the effects of ionising radiation. |
| Distribution network | Distribution network Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. Downstream of the transmission network, medium- and low-voltage distribution networks serve end-users (residential, local authorities, SMEs, SMIs, etc.). |
| Transmission network | Transmission network Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. Network providing for the transmission of electrical power at High and Very High Voltages from the generating sites to the distribution networks or industrial sites directly connected to it; this includes the major interconnection transmission network (400,000 volts and 225,000 volts) and the regional distribution networks (225,000 volts, 150,000 volts, 90,000 volts and 63,000 volts). |
| Entity Responsible for Balance | Entity Responsible for Balance Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. Entities with which RTE signs a contract for the financing of shortfalls between forecast and actual consumption and the production of a portfolio of users brought together by the entity responsible for balance which plays a role of insurer covering the potential losses arising from the many differences between over- and under-supply. |
| Reprocessing | Reprocessing Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. Reactor burnt fuel reprocessing aimed at separating materials that can be recycled (uranium and plutonium) from final waste. |
| Systems services | Systems services Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. Systems services are services provided to users (consumers or electricity producers) through the joint action of the electricity transmission network operator RTE and the producers. They are intended to regulate frequency and voltage in order to maintain the balance between electric consumption and generation at all times. They are created by RTE from elementary contributions from producers, i.e. primary and secondary reserves provided to RTE. RTE remunerates the producers for these auxiliary services before reinvoicing these services via the tariff to use the network under the rules defined by the Union for the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE). |
| STEP | STEP Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. Pumped-storage hydropower plant. Power plant with two tanks, an upper and a lower one, connected by pumps that allow the water to be pumped up once turbines and located in the lower tank, towards the upper tank. |
| Storage | Storage Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. Storage consists in placing packages of radioactive waste in a facility, ensuring their long-term management, i.e., under safe conditions allowing for long-term risk control. |
| Nuclear safety | Nuclear safety Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. Nuclear safety includes all of the technical, organisational and human measures which are intended to prevent accident risks and to limit the effects of an accident, and which are taken at every stage of the life of a nuclear power plant (from design to operation and finally to decommissioning). |
| Therms (th) | Therms (th) Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. One therm (th) is equivalent to 1,163kWh or 4,186 million joules. |
| Nuclear tranche | Nuclear tranche Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. Electrical generation unit consisting of a nuclear boiler and a turbo-alternator generator. A nuclear tranche essentially consists of its reactor type and the power of its turbo-alternator generator. EDF nuclear plants include two or four tranches, and occasionally six. |
| Uranium | Uranium Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. In its natural state, uranium is a mix containing three main isotopes (elements whose atoms have the same number of electrons and protons, thus the same chemical properties, but a different number of neutrons):
Uranium 235 is the only natural fissile isotope, a quality which justifies its use as an energy source. |
| Enriched uranium | Enriched uranium Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. Uranium, whose isotope 235 content, the only fissile material, has been increased from its low natural level (0.7%) to approximately 4% for pressurised water reactor fuel. |
| ERU (enriched reprocessed uranium) | ERU (enriched reprocessed uranium) Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. To be used in a reactor, reprocessed uranium (RepU), even if containing more fissile uranium than in its natural state, must be further enriched. It is therefore called enriched reprocessed uranium (ERU). |
| RepU (reprocessed uranium) | RepU (reprocessed uranium) Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. Reprocessed uranium (“RepU”), uranium derived from spent fuel reprocessing, differs from natural uranium as it contains slightly more uranium 235 and other uranium isotopes. It is recyclable and RepU fuel assembly refuelling is commonly used in reactors. |
| Vitrification | Vitrification Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. Process of immobilisation in a glass structure of concentrated solutions of high-level radioactive waste by mixing at high temperature with glass paste. |
| Non-interconnected zones | Non-interconnected zones Maximum energy that hydropower facilities may produce using contributions under normal hydraulicity conditions. However, generation from hydroelectric facilities does vary, sometimes markedly, from one year to the next depending on hydraulicity (rainfall and snowfall). In dry years, the generation index may vary by 20% or more from the standard level. Zones in France which are not connected (by power lines) to metropolitan France (Corsica and overseas departments). |
