The level of the CSPE tax was set in 2016 at a full rate of €22.5/MWh, and eight reduced rates ranging from €12/MWh to €0.5/MWh depending on criteria of electro-intensiveness, business category and the risk of carbon leakage from installations (the risk of industries relocating to countries where greenhouse gas emissions are higher due to their electricity mix). The level remains unchanged in 2020.
The amended finance law no. 4 for 2020 also applied an upward adjustment to the amounts of compensation payable by the State in 2020 for:
These expenses had increased due to the larger differential between the market price for electricity and the purchase obligation tariff payable to producers.
The amount of expenses (excluding the annual contribution to repayment and associated interest) to be compensated to EDF for 2020 is €8,081 million.
The amounts received in 2020 (excluding the annual contribution to repayment and associated interest) totalled €7,732 million (including €5,333 million from the dedicated “energy transition” budget account and €2,399 million from the general budget).
Based on a receivable of €1,647 million at 31 December 2019, the operating receivable owed by the State to EDF amounts to €1,974 million at 31 December 2020. The situation will be closely monitored in view of the initial Finance Law for 2020 adopted by vote in late 2019, which provides for discontinuation of the special “energy transition” budget item from January 2021.
Finally, in accordance with decree 2016-158 of 18 February 2016 concerning compensation for public energy service charges, on 17 July 2020 the CRE published its decision 2020-177 of 15 July 2020 setting out a forecast of EDF’s public service charges for 2021 (€8,104 million), a revised forecast of charges for 2020 (€8,122 million), and the actual charges recorded for 2019 (€7,585 million).
The French capacity mechanism took effect on 1 January 2017. It was introduced by France’s Energy Code to ensure secure national power supplies.
In view of the risks induced by the Covid-19 pandemic regarding electricity supply security for the winter 2020-2021, and to maximise the utility and efficiency of the capacity mechanism, RTE made exceptional adjustments to certain conditions and relaxed certain regulatory constraints for capacity operators willing to increase their availability (notably waiving higher balance adjustment fees and late certification fees).
RTE thus issued a summary of transparency information currently available on the capacity mechanism on 18 September 2020, to enable the actors to assess the supply-demand balance situation for capacity guarantees in the mechanism for the next few years.
RTE also organised two further balance adjustment sessions for 2020, and made changes to the 2021 Demand Response tender to make it more attractive. The volumes offered and accepted doubled, and a bonus was added for capacities that could be offered as soon as November 2020.
2020 registered a significant increase in capacity prices for 2020 and subsequent years from the auction in June. This is mainly explained by the market actors anticipating lower fleet availability for peak periods, in the context of the Covid-19 crisis (see note 2.1).
The market reference prices for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 were established respectively at €10.0/kW, €9.3/kW, €17.4/kW and €19.5/kW. Six auctions held in 2020 (March, April, June, September, October, December) for deliveries in 2021resulted in the following prices, in chronological order: €19.5/kW, €19.2/kW, €47.4/kW, €29.5/kW, €32.7/kW, and €39.1/kW.
The delivery year 2022 was also opened to auction in 2020. The four capacity auctions held resulted in the following prices, in chronological order: €16.6/kW,€38.9/kW, €18.1/kW and €18.2/kW.
Decree 2017-690 of 2 May 2017 issued by the French Ministry for the Environment,Energy and the Sea substantially raised the obligation levels for the fourth period of energy savings obligations (initially running from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2020) to 1,200TWhc for the “standard” obligations and 400TWhc for the obligations that are intended to benefit households in situations of energy poverty, compared to 700TWhc and 150TWhc respectively for the previous period.
Law no. 2019-1147 of 8 November 2019 relating to Energy and the Climate, as well as prolonging the fourth period of the Energy Savings Certificates scheme, included a chapter on measures against fraud concerning these certificates designed to increase the number and effectiveness of controls and sanctions.
If there is a shortfall in certificates surrendered at the end of the period, obligated actors must pay a fine of €15 per MWhc of shortfall.
In order to fulfil these obligations, EDF made every effort to gradually increase its number of Energy Savings Certificates, taking advantage of the Coup de pouce operations launched in France early in 2019 (subsidies for insulation, financial aid for replacing oil heating by heat pumps, 50% additional energy savings subsidy for heat pump users, special offers for heat pump maintenance contracts, etc.).
EDF currently considers that due to the combined effect of the expected increase in certificates earned by the end of 2021 and the extension of the fourth period, there is no risk of a shortfall in Energy Savings Certificates at the end of the period.
The ARENH(1) scheme for regulated access to historic nuclear power, set up in 2011, entitles alternative suppliers to purchase electricity from EDF to supply their final customers, after signing a framework agreement, at a regulated price for set quantities determined under the provisions of the French Energy Code. This scheme is also open to network operators to cover their energy losses.
The ARENH price, determined by the Ministers for Energy and the Economy following a proposal by the CRE, has been maintained at €42/MWh since January 2012. This includes delivery of the electricity and is considered to incorporate the associated capacity guarantees.
The maximum total volume that can be sold under the ARENH system to suppliers who apply to the scheme to cover the needs of their final customers was initially set at 100TWh per year.
In decision 2020-277 of 12 November 2020, as required by the Energy Code, theCRE set out the method for allocating ARENH volumes if applications exceed the maximum total volume defined for 2021. This decision stipulated that if the ARENH was oversubscribed in November 2020 , curtailment would only apply to new ARENH applications made in the session concerned.
(1) Accès Régulé à l’Énergie Nucléaire Historique.
