Offshore wind power to halt electricity production during periods of negative prices

"The offshore wind farms of Fécamp, Saint-Nazaire, and Saint-Brieuc have signed amendments to their electricity purchase agreements, which allow them to request the shutdown of all or part of the farm's production during periods of negative prices," the Ministry of Energy said.

"The first stops related to the application of these contracts were thus successfully carried out during the weekend of May 10 and 11," he added in a press release.

Until now, these parks were encouraged to produce at their maximum capacity regardless of the market price due to the purchase obligation contracts to which they were subject.

The consequence was that "even during periods of negative prices, the entire production of wind farms was therefore purchased at the price fixed by the contract and resold on the markets at a negative price," explains Bercy.

"This therefore had a negative impact on public finances and the electricity system," he emphasizes.

The ministry plans similar provisions in the 2025 finance law for onshore wind power, the most powerful older installations of which are also subject to purchase obligation contracts.

A first implementing decree was submitted for consultation to the Higher Energy Council (CSE) on April 29, which will be supplemented by a second by the second half of 2025.

Bercy also indicates that the new contracts to support renewable energies, except for the smallest installations, are no longer in the form of a purchase obligation, but of additional remuneration.

This type of contract "encourages the installations benefiting from it to shut down during periods of negative prices," he emphasizes.

According to the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), which made recommendations to this effect in the autumn, negative prices represented 235 hours in the first half of 2024, or 5,4% of the time, compared to 147 hours in 2023 (1,7% of the time) and never more than 102 hours per year until 2022 (or 1,2% of the time).

The CRE estimated, "by way of illustration," that this represented a loss of approximately €80 million for the French fleet in the first half of last year. It also indicated that the shutdown of fleets under "purchase obligation" during periods of negative prices could have generated savings for the State of approximately €15 million over the same period.