Universal Registration Document 2022

3.2.3 Integrated and sustainable water management

3.2.3.1 Water, a resource for energy production

Water is an essential resource for the production of most energies, either for the cooling of nuclear and thermal power plants, or as a driving force for hydroelectric power plants. It is an issue identified in the Group materiality matrix. Under the terms of the French Environmental Code, water is the “nation’s ordinary heritage”. Water management therefore requires that collective rules be drawn up based on mutual support between upstream and downstream. This is why the Group is committed, in its CSR policy, to protecting and managing water in an integrated and sustainable manner, both quantitatively and qualitatively ⁽¹⁾ and to consulting with the territories in which it operates, by fully integrating the local dimension of water, including various water uses under increasing climatic constraints ⁽²⁾. Sharing of water for multiple uses is an intrinsic characteristic of hydropower and the dams operated by EDF allow billions of cubic metres of water to be stored. They play an essential role in certain basins during periods of drought and heat waves.

Expertise

Since 1946, EDF has been developing cutting-edge expertise in meteorological and hydrological monitoring and forecasting. A department has been set up to measure, model and forecast hydro-meteorology for the EDF fleet, drawing on more than 1,000 measuring stations and 75 years of data.

Offshore Coordinator

Even if current concern is focused on freshwater resources, there is only one water cycle, from source to sea. Because of its strategic, geopolitical and economic stakes, the Ocean, following on from Climate and Biodiversity, has become the third major environmental and international issue. The EDF group has also built a historic link with major stakeholders linked to marine issues, particularly with the construction of the Rance tidal power plant in the 1960s, with coastal thermal and nuclear production facilities, and more recently with the development of offshore wind turbines or reduction of the carbon impact of ports. The EXCOM named an EDF group “Offshore Coordinator” to define a strategy and coordinate the Group’s different entities on this theme.

3.2.3.2 Water, a resource to be preserved and saved

The Group is committed to preserving and protecting water in terms of both quantity and quality. The Group is also committed to continuing to improve performance in terms of water withdrawal and consumption at existing power plants and to researching the most efficient way to use water across regions and major river basins.

3.2.3.2.1 Exposure to water stress

The evolution of water stress is one of the criteria used to evaluate the water component of any new project presented to the Investment Committee (CECEG).

3.2.3.2.1.1 Nuclear and thermal power generation

Various assessments

The water stress exposure of the Group’s production facilities was assessed (in 2018 with an update in 2022) with 4 different international reference tools (WFN’s Blue Water Scarcity ⁽³), WRI’s Aqueduct ⁽⁴⁾, WULCA’s AWARE ⁽⁵⁾ and EEA’s ⁽⁶⁾ WEI+ (⁷⁾) at annual and monthly time steps. These tools do not identify freshwater withdrawals from stressed areas in France, with the exception of Aqueduct.

Aqueduct results

According to Aqueduct and as an annual average, three nuclear power plants (NPPs), including one using seawater, are located in areas of high-water stress (40%<bws<80%) and seven NPPs face a medium high risk (20%<bws<40%). One fossil-fired plant (CCGT) is located in an extremely high-water stress area (BWS>80%) and two sites are located in a high-water stress area (40%<bws<80%). The latter three plants are used on an ad hoc basis to meet the peak demands of the grid, especially in winter, and therefore not necessarily during periods of water stress. The results provided by Aqueduct give a first assessment which must be viewed with caution due to the accuracy of the tool, both in terms of time (the step is monthly at best) and in spatial terms (10 x 10km unit).

EDF has a hydro-meteorological centre that records local data in real time for all its power plants in order to have greater accuracy in measuring water stress. Reviewing this data does not confirm the indications provided by Aqueduct. Changes in water stress up to the year 2040 have also been studied using the three scenarios proposed by Aqueduct. There is no trend towards a general increase in water stress across the nuclear and thermal fleet, nor is there a site-specific alert (e.g. from a high to an extremely high stress level).

3.2.3.2.1.2 Hydropower generation

In 2022, a test conducted on twelve hydropower plants confirmed that the Aqueduct tool is not relevant for dam reservoirs, as it does not take into account the possibility of storing water during periods of high rainfall, nor the possibility of releasing water during dry periods or water stress. EDF therefore relies here again on its hydrometeorological centre, with its own evaluation and forecasting tools at the local level; regular reassessments of site yields are made on the basis of changes in hydrology and temperature due to climate change. Prospective studies, looking ahead to 2030 and 2050, and taking into account local societal changes (water uses for example), have been carried out in several basins with the support of R&D and the assistance of external players. This is notably the case for the Garonne and Durance basins.

3.2.3.2.2 Water withdrawal, consumption and intensity

3.2.3.2.2.1 Group water withdrawals

At the Group level, around 39 billion cubic metres of water are used for cooling thermal power facilities, of which 99% is reusable and returned virtually instantaneously to the natural environment. As such, EDF is a significant user, but negligible consumer, of water. Main water is not used for cooling systems but only for various forms of water process for a share lower than 0.1%. The bulk of the water withdrawn by its installations is in France (79%) and the United Kingdom (19%) in areas where water stress is limited (low to medium, see section above). The Group’s water withdrawals are down by 8% compared to 2021, mainly due to the significant decrease in nuclear generation.

A significant number of nuclear and thermal facilities are located by the sea and therefore do not use fresh water for cooling but sea water (without any quantitative constraints). 69% of the water withdrawn for cooling purposes by the Group comes from marine or estuary environments. This percentage is almost 61% in France, over 99% in the United Kingdom and close to 93% in Italy. For the remaining 31% (fresh water), the quantity of freshwater sourced from groundwater is marginal and amounts to 2hm3, about 0.01% of the freshwater surface.