Electricity market: UFC-Que Choisir and CLCV ask the Government to review an already obsolete copy

Far from allowing consumers to benefit from fair and stable rates, particularly for the regulated rate, this project prolongs and amplifies an artificial and unacceptable exposure of consumers' bills to prices on international markets. Consequently, our associations call on the Government to review its copy in depth.

Poorly adapted regulation, incapable of avoiding the explosion of electricity bills

Since January 1, 2022, regulated electricity prices have increased by more than 40%. By mentioning the energy crisis following Russia's invasion of Ukraine as the cause of this increase, the Government is ignoring its own responsibility, largely committed to the root causes of the explosion in energy bills. electricity paid by consumers. Indeed, it is the regulation of the French electricity market which artificially exposes consumers to the volatility and high cost of electricity prices on international markets.

How can we accept that electricity prices on international markets (themselves set, among other things, by gas prices) represent more than half of the electricity supply costs paid by French consumers, while the electricity consumed in France is produced almost entirely in our country (94,6%) (1), that domestic production is largely decarbonized (92,2%) (2) and ensured mainly by means of production including installations have been amortized for a long time?

A project for new inflationary regulation

While the two associations have been calling for several years on public authorities to involve all stakeholders (including consumer associations) in the development of the regulatory framework to apply from January 1, 2026, they could only deplore that it only involved the Government and EDF (3). This lack of consideration of the voice of consumers results in numerous deficiencies in the new regulation promoted by the Government in the energy sovereignty law (4).

Rather than establishing a framework ensuring households will pay in the future an electricity price representative of the costs of producing electricity in our territory, the project completely ignores regulation of electricity production. hydroelectricity, whose production infrastructures are mainly public and managed by EDF. As it stands, only very incomplete regulation of nuclear power, which carries the seeds of massive and unjustified inflation in the price of electricity over the coming years, is envisaged.

Basically, EDF would sell all of its nuclear production on the markets and consumers would only benefit very partially from the profits generated by the producer on these sales. In fact, the partial redistribution mechanism would only begin from a high threshold, estimated by the Government at €78/MWh. This price appears completely disconnected from the real costs of the nuclear sector, which are much lower in many countries (such as the United States and Finland, where the cost of nuclear power is around €30/MWh). Furthermore, this project would require consumers to finance the renewal of nuclear power plants while excluding from regulation all the production that would be ensured by these new power plants. In other words, consumers would finance the new power plants without being associated with the expected benefits, which would not be understandable.

Overall, behind the proclaimed ambition of guaranteeing consumers a stable electricity price representative of the costs of the French electricity mix, this project for new market regulation actually constitutes a real deception.

Consequently, the UFC-Que Que Choisir and the CLCV ask the Government to abandon its project for a new electricity regulation, and to propose a new one resulting from genuine consultation with stakeholders, including organizations of consumers. In this context, the two associations are promoting the creation of a public electricity service which will aim to allow consumers to pay an electricity price representative of the costs of producing nuclear and hydraulic electricity in the country, as well as good for current and future installations.

In addition, they recall at the same time their attachment to maintaining the regulated tariff, the only offer truly supervised by the public authorities, and to its reform so that it is calculated solely from the real costs of electricity supply of the historic operator.

(1) In 2023, gross electricity consumption in France amounted to 438,3 TWh, and imports were 24,5 TWh (see https://analysesetdonnees.rte-france.com/index .php/bilan-electrique-2023/consommation#Consommationcorrigee and https://analysesetdonnees.rte-france.com/marche/echanges-commerciaux).

(2) https://analysesetdonnees.rte-france.com/index.php/bilan-electrique-2023/synthese

(3) See https://www.quechoisir.org/action-ufc-que-choisir-marche-de-l-electricite-l-ufc-que-choisir-denonce-un-accord-de-marchands-de -tapis-negocie-dans-l-ombre-n113370/et https://www.clcv.org/communiques-de-presse/reforme-du-marche-de-lelectricite-letat-et-edf-sentreprises-sur- the-backs-of-consumers-to-charge-an-exorbitant-nuclear-price

(4) The bill was unveiled by the Ministry of Energy Transition in January 2024, but has not yet been presented to the Council of Ministers.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.