Universal Registration Document 2020

1. The Group, its strategy and activities

Generation allocation contracts: In the 1970-80’s, EDF developed, industrial cooperation with European operators in the nuclear industry, in the form of generation allocation contracts backed by units of the EDF French nuclear fleet.

As at 31 December 2020, EDF has within its fleet ten generating units participating in the contracts (up to 1GW) with the following European energy companies:

  • Cattenom 1-2: EnBW (5%);
  • Bugey 2-3: Électricité de Laufenbourg(1) (17.5%);
  • Tricastin 1 to 4: Electrabel(2) (12.5%);
  • Chooz B1-B2: Luminus, EDF subsidiary in Belgium (3.3%).

The purpose of these generation allocation contracts is to make available to each partner the proportion of energy generated actually due to him, based on the share of the capacity allocated to him – in return for payment of their share of the construction costs, annual operating costs (including upstream and downstream fuel costs), local taxes and taxes specific to nuclear energy, and the costs relating to decommissioning. In these transactions, the partners have shared with EDF the industrial risks in the development of the fleet and assume the risks linked to performance concerning the current operation of the power plants. On the other hand, they have no operational role.

Furthermore, EDF signed a second type of generation allocation contract relating to a pool of power plants (totalling approximately 2GW) under which EDF makes available to its partners a share of the electricity determined by the level of availability of all orpart of a standard fleet, applied to the capacity share reserved to the partners for theunits concerned. These contracts mainly concern the following power plants:

  • Chooz B1-B2 (N4 initial series unit): Electrabel (21.7%);
  • Cattenom 3-4: Électricité de Laufenbourg (7.8%) and the Swiss electricity groupCNP (21.8%).
Operation of the nuclear fleet

Nuclear power is a means of generation whose variable cost, mainly fuel-related costs, is low since it represents less than 30% of operating costs(3). The main competitive levers of the nuclear fleet in its operating phase are thus the amount of generated energy and the optimisation of fixed operating and maintenance costs. The levers relating to the fuel cycle are described in section 1.4.1.1.2.3 “Nuclear issues”– “The nuclear fuel cycle and related issues”.

Generation cycle and planned outages

To reconcile the challenges linked to the strong variations in seasonal consumption in France, due to its strong temperature sensitivity, the availability of maintenance resources and the efficient use of reactor fuel, EDF has adopted generation cycles of 12 and 18 months for its fleet broken down as follow (as of end-2020):

  • 28 units of the 900MW series have an operating cycle of approximately12 months;
  • 4 units of the 900MW series, 20 units of the 1,300MW series and 4 units of the N4 (1,450MW) series have an operating cycle of approximately 18 months.

At the end of these operating cycles, shutdown periods are programmed in order to replace a fraction of the fuel loaded in the core and perform maintenance work. Two types of planned outages are alternated at the end of each generation cycle:

  • an ordinary shutdown for refuelling, for a standard period of approximately
    40 days. Unloading spent fuel and reloading new fuel is the main operation performed. Some maintenance or periodic testing may take place during this type of outage;
  • a partial inspection for refuelling and maintenance for which the standard period(4) lasts approximately 85 days.

Every ten years, the power plant is shut down for an average period of 180 days(5) in average to carry out a ten-year inspection(6). This length of time varies according to the works and maintenance programme, as well as the series concerned.

The programme for a ten-year inspection includes the following:

  • unloading of spent fuel and reloading of fresh fuel, as at each outage;
  • hydro-power test of the primary coolant system, a leak test of the containment, and inspection work of the reactor’s pressure vessel;
  • modification work, associated with ten-year safety re-evaluations;
  • other specific maintenance operations, in particular renovation or replacement of major components.

At the end of each ten-year inspection, the ASN has to agree to the restarting of the reactor and make any relevant technical recommendations.

Regulatory notice

 Nuclear safety authority (ASN)

The Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN) is an independent administrative authority which contributes to the control of nuclear safety, radiation protection in France, and informing the public about these matters.

Its activity is organised around these main missions:

  • contributing to drawing up legislation, giving its opinion to the Government on draft decrees and ministerial orders, and making regulatory rulings of a technical nature;
  • examining all individual authorisation applications for basic nuclear facilities (BNFs). It grants authorisations except in the case of major BNF authorisations, such as for construction and decommissioning;
  • inspection of installations, which it carries out through regulatory scheduled and unannounced on-site inspections, in particular on the occasion of regular compliance checks and safety reviews; these are mandatory for a power plant to continue operating.
  • informing the public about the status of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France;
  • lastly, in the event of an emergency, the ASN controls the operations to secure the installation carried out by the operator. It informs the public of the situation and assists the government. In particular, it provides the competent authorities with recommendations on the measures to be taken in respect of civil security.

 

Operation of EDF’s nuclear fleet

Nuclear generation resources, owing to their low variable cost are first used for
base-load generation, immediately after run-of-river hydro-power and other unavoidable renewable energies, as well as the energy purchased under buying obligations from decentralised energy producers. Variations in energy consumption over one year (summer-winter, day-night) and the currently restricted fluidity of wholesale markets due to limited interconnections on the borders lead nuclear energy to be used also for mid-merit generation. High variations in seasonal consumption in France and its major variation during winter months require that planned nuclear fleet outages be concentrated between April and October.

(1) Axpo Group.

(2) Engie Group.

(3) Operating costs are defined as follows: fuel costs (including downstream expenses in the fuel cycle), operating expenses (purchases and external services, employee expenses)and maintenance costs (expenses and investments). They do not include investments related to construction or decommissioning expenses.

(4) Standard durations represent optimised and realistic reference durations by outage types. They take into account the feedback from past outages. Outage planned durationsfluctuate around these standard durations, depending on the work programme to be performed. In February 2020, EDF revised upwards its forecast outage durations to take into account the industrial reality observed over the 2016-2019 period.

(5) “Normal” duration excluding particular and/or extreme cases.

(6) Pursuant to Article L. 593-18 of the French Environment Code.