EDF’s facilities have a technical lifespan potentially easily exceeding 40 years (hydroelectric facilities, nuclear power plants, power grids), making it, among non-nationalised companies, one of the major firms most exposed to climate change.
The strategy and actions set up by the EDF group enable management of climate change risks, particularly physical risks. 2020 is a fine illustration of this fact, and was recognised as the hottest year ever recorded in France since measurements began back in 1900, and one of the three hottest years ever recorded worldwide.
By 1999, the storms Lothar and Martin had already led EDF to work on mitigating the physical impact of climate change on its activities. The EDF group developed a climate incident plan in 2004, followed by a climate change adaptation strategy in 2010. This document lays out the foundations of the Group’s commitments in terms of adaptation, and identifies actions to be implemented across all business lines: evaluating the impacts of climate change on future and existing activities; adapting existing installations to make them less sensitive to climatic conditions and more resilient to extreme weather events; incorporating climate change scenarios in the design of new installations; and adapting the Group’s solutions, internal operations, and expertise to encompass climate change.
The EDF group adaptation strategy covers first and foremost production facilities with a lifespan of over 40 years, such as nuclear power plants and hydroelectric dams. Wind and solar farms, being less cumbersome, easier to decommission, and with atypical lifespan of less than 20 years, are considered as being less exposed to the physical risks of climate change.
All EDF group entities are required to take account of climate risks in mapping their risks, including both physical risks and “transition” risks(1). The entities most exposed to physical risks have climate change adaptation plans, which must be updated atleast every 5 years.
Immediately after publication of the IPCC’s first report in 1990, the EDF group resolved to develop internal skills focusing on climate issues, in collaboration with key organisations such as Météo-France (i.e. the French meteorological office). Unlike any other major electricity company, the EDF group now has a team of some fifteen permanent researchers investigating the consequences of climate change on its existing and future production fleets for nuclear, hydro, wind, and solar power, etc., changes in production potential from renewable energy, and trends in energy demand.
EDF R&D’s climate department was set up in 2014. It acts as an interface between constantly-changing scientific knowledge about the climate and the EDF group’s business lines. It provides the Group’s different business lines with climate data that can be used immediately to quantify climate-change-related risks and develop appropriate adaptation plans. EDF systematically takes the IPCC’s worst-case scenario (currently, RCP 8.5) into account in its impact and design studies. The EDF group has also developed an operational unit to monitor meteorological phenomena and forecast their impact on water catchment sources: groundwater, rivers, and the sea. Located in Grenoble, this unit provides 24/7 monitoring of hydro-meteorological phenomena that represent a risk to EDF’s production fleet.
Overall, more than 80 EDF group employees work on meteorology and climate to manage production facilities and balance supply and demand.
Resilience to extreme natural phenomena has always been taken into account in the safety rules imposed by the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) for France’s Basic Nuclear Facilities (BNFs). The aim of the adaptation actions launched by EDF, in particular since France’s 2003 heatwave, has been to increase the safety margin and maintain production levels during such periods; in 2003, some power plants had to reduce output so as not to further heat river water, leading to a production loss of 5.5TWh, equivalent to 1% of EDF’s production that year.
The “Grands Chauds” (’Heatwaves’) plan launched in 2008 resulted in EDF making improvements to cold water source cooling efficiency for some of its power plants, and hardening reactor building electronics so that they can withstand temperatures in excess of 50°C.
All EDF group power plants currently under construction (including Flammanville 3and Hinkley Point C) have been designed taking into account the most recent climate scenarios; in particular, this has involved revising the rise in sea levels upwards.
In 2020, the total loss of production due to climate events at nuclear facilities was3TWh, particularly due to a total of 80 days of unit shutdowns in Chooz (for comparison: 1.4TWh in 2019 and 2.7TWh in 2018). This was the biggest production loss due to the environment since 2003. However, the requirements applicable to the Chooz plant are highly specific to its cross-border location, as it is historically covered by a diplomatic agreement between France and Belgium requiring withdrawals to be stopped once the Meuse River falls below a given flow rate limit.
Overall, since 2003, loss of production by nuclear power plants due to high temperatures has been on average only 0.3% per year.
To increase resilience to extreme weather events and the risks relating to a huge influx of water into reservoirs, the EDF group has developed and installed innovative technology known as the “Piano Key Weir” (PKWeir) on nine of its hydropower infrastructures. This technology allows much more water to be released without increasing the size of the dam. EDF received an award recognising this innovation in the field of adaptation to climate change at the COP21 United Nations ClimateChange Conference in Paris.
In 2019 EDF carried out spillway recalibration works on the La Palisse sur la Loire dams (Ardèche), raising the abutments and reinforcing downstream scour protection, as well as works on the Sainte-Marguerite dam on the Chassezac (Lozère and Ardèche), installing active truss rods to reinforce the dam against high water levels.
Another example of how the EDF group is adapting its hydropower fleet to climate change is the work done in 2006 to raise the "Les Bois" reservoir water intake in the Mont-Blanc massif by several metres, thus taking into account and anticipating the shrinkage of France’s largest glacier, the Mer de Glace.
In the aftermath of the 1999 storms, the distribution network manager Enedis set up the Electricity Rapid Intervention Force (or Force d’intervention rapide électricité, FIRE) enabling resources and staff to be redeployed nationwide to restore power as quickly as possible. FIRE is one of the EDF group’s key measures to respond to extreme weather risks. FIRE currently has 2,500 technicians trained for crisis situations and 11 logistics storage facilities across the country, allowing the deployment of 2,000 generators.
2020 was marked by a summer heatwave that resulted in a series of successfully-managed incidents in major cities, and above all storm Alex in the first days of October, which caused flooding and widespread damage in three valleys in the Alpes Maritimes. In 2020, FIRE intervened on six occasions.
Distribution network manager Enedis is also working on reducing the vulnerability of its 1.4 million kilometres of networks. This mainly consists in burying high-voltage overhead lines to avoid risks of falling trees, wind, snow and frost, beginning with the most exposed facilities. In 2020, 2,504km of high voltage overhead lines and 5,108km of low voltage overhead lines were removed. In the island regions, 95% of new networks are built underground.
(1) See section 3.9.4 “Summary of EDF Group climate risks”.
