EDF Group

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World's Largest Nuclear Operator

The EDF Group consists of over 70 affiliates and investments in addition to the parent company. It has investments in 22 countries and offers services and consulting in 35 countries. Until August 2004, EDF (Electricite de France) was wholly owned by the French State. EDF is now a limited company, allowed to sell shares in up to 30% of the company. Its shares have been listed on the Paris stock-market since November 2005. [1]

On December 31st 2011 15.5% of EDF’s shares were owned by investors, of which 1.84% were employees. 84.5% remained with the French State. [2] A major focus for the group, currently, is the opening up of the French energy market in July 2007. [3] As well as France, EDF has a major presence in the UK (EDF Energy), Germany and Italy. The Group has Europe’s largest electricity generation capacity, and the world’s largest nuclear capacity.

Globally, EDF has 37.7 million customers, with 36 million of those in Europe and 26 million in France. It has 134.6 GW of capacity of which 99.3 is in France or overseas colonies and 13 in the UK. 74.8 GW was nuclear capacity providing almost 80% of EDF’s global output of electricity in 2011.

EDF owns and operates 78 nuclear reactors - 58 in France (providing 77.7% of France’s electricity), 15 in the UK and 5 in the US. France is the second largest electronuclear power generator in the world behind the United States. [4]

A Second White Elephant for Europe?

The Olkiluoto-3 reactor, currently under construction in Finland, is the first new reactor to be built in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster 20 years ago. [5] It will be the world’s first European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR) reactor – being built by a consortium ofAreva and Siemens. The project is about five years behind schedule. [6]

Yet EDF is building a second EPR at Flamanville in Normandy – the third reactor on the site. EDF says completion of the EPR project is a key step in the process of renewing France’s nuclear generation capacity. Flamanville was supposed to be up and running by 2012, with construction costs of €3.3bn, but the plant is now not expected to open until 2016 and cost €6bn.[7].

The EPR design is a development of existing reactor designs. Reminiscent of the 1978 decision by the UK’s Labour Government to go-ahead with the Torness nuclear station in East Scotland (“A £2500 million mistake” [8] to keep the AGR reactor design option open, Flamanville is being built, not because the electricity is required, but as a “showcase for the industrial know-how of EDF and its European partners”. [9]

The French anti-nuclear group, Sortir du Nucleaire (SN),[10] argues that the building permit awarded for Flamanville was wrongly granted. "EPR will just be used as a shop window to sell reactors to China," it argues. "We don't need to build any more reactors as those we have can be used until 2025." [11] In fact EDF set up a joint venture company with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp CGNPC to build two EPRs at Taishan in China with construction starting in 2009. [12]

Lack of Decommissioning Funds.

France's Court of Accounts, which oversees the finances of public bodies and state-owned enterprises, said in a controversial report published in January 2005, that debt-laden EDF had only what it termed an "embryo" of the money needed for decommissioning and waste management after the closure of its nuclear facilities. It’s heavy spending abroad on acquisitions in recent years has squandered finances. Basically EDF used its decommissioning funds to buy up companies abroad including large swaths of the British energy sector, and a stake in the Italian utility Edison. [13]

The Court of Accounts said EDF's preparations for nuclear decommissioning raised concerns that decommissioning costs would fall on future consumers or the state. Having unnecessarily given large contracts to Areva over past years to reprocess its spent fuel, EDF has accumulated over 80 tons of plutonium, and vast quantities of nuclear waste at the reprocessing plant at La Hague. So it is now confronted with huge liabilities, but insufficient funds to cover them.

Energy Imperialism?

Italy & Germany

EDF owns 50% of Edison, Italy's second largest utility, which has an installed capacity of 11.5GW and around 11.5% of the Italian electricity market and 19.6% of the gas market. EDF also owns 100% of a smaller Italian utility , Fenice, which has an installed capacity of 0.5GW. EDF sold its share of the German utility EnBW in 2010. [14]

Hungary & Central Europe

In November 2006, EDF purchased the remaining shares in the Hungarian company, Demasz, having owned only 60.95% of shares in 2005. Demasz is an electricity distribution and supply company. [15] EDF 2005 Annual Report also reports that EDF owns 95.57% of the Hungarian generation company BERt which has an installed capacity of 392Mwe. EDF also owns 49% of the Slovak electricity sales and distribution company, SSE, which has around 30% of the Slovak market.

Sales Contributions

France - 30,126 million euros

UK [EDF Energy] - 6,674 million euros

UK [EDF Trading] - 441 million euros

Germany - 5,005 million euros

Italy [Edison] - 1,010 million euros

Italy [Fenice] - 480 million euros

EDF Worldwide

EDF has been divesting itself of investments in Latin America after some spectacular losses in 2004. EDF has also been active in Asia where is has worked on, amongst other things, nuclear construction projects. The Company says more than half of the electricity generating plants built worldwide between now and 2020 will be in Asia. The Group has been active in China for more than 20 years, participating in the construction and operation of the Daya Bay and Ling Ao nuclear plants. EDF is the largest foreign investor in China’s electricity sector.

EDF International North America Inc. is a member of the NuStart Consortium.[16]

References

  1. ↑ EDF SA Shareholders Information website (accessed November, 2006).
  2. ↑ Shareholding StructureEDF Group website, accessed August 2012.
  3. ↑ Presentation of the Group, EDF Group website (accessed November, 2006).
  4. ↑ Year 2011 Facts and Figures EDF 2012, accessed August 2012.
  5. ↑ Luke Harding, “Caught Between Global Warming and an Energy Crisis, Blair looks North for Answers”, The Guardian, 14 April, 2006.
  6. ↑ Stellfox, D. Areva-Siemens win €125 million from TVO over OL3, but €2 billion is in dispute, i-Nuclear 5th July 2012, accessed August 2012.
  7. ↑ Macilister, T. EDF admits French nuclear reactor delayed but says UK projects on target, Guardian 20th July 2011, accessed August 2012.
  8. ↑ Alf Young, “Torness plant was 'a £2500m mistake’”, Glasgow Herald, 10 November, 1989.
  9. ↑ "Nuclear Energy and the EPR Project at Flamanville-3", EDF Press Kit, October, 2006.
  10. ↑ Sortir du Nucleaire website
  11. ↑ Terry Macalister, “Sell-off of Nuclear Plants Faces Delay”, The Guardian, 22 August, 2006.
  12. ↑ Greenpeace, The EPR Nuclear Reactor, Greenpeace January 2012, accessed August 2012.
  13. ↑ Le démantèlement des installations nucléaires et la gestion des déchets radioactifs, Cour des Comptes, January, 2005.
  14. ↑ Year 2011 Facts and Figures EDF 2012, accessed August 2012.
  15. ↑ " EDF successfully completes public purchase offer for Demasz", EDF Press Release, 15 November, 2006.
  16. ↑ EDF International North America Inc. website, accessed December, 2006.
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