EDF Group
|
This article is part of the Nuclear Spin project of Spinwatch. |
Contents
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 January 1st 2006 12.7% of EDF’s shares were owned by investors, of which 1.9% were employees. 87.3% 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 40.2 million customers, with 36.7 million of those in Europe and 28 million in France. It has 130.7 GWe of capacity of which 98.9 is in France or overseas colonies. 70.53% of EDF’s output was nuclear electricity in 2005.
EDF owns and operates 58 nuclear reactors with a total installed capacity of 63.1 GW providing more than 85% of France’s electricity and making it 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 – designed by the Franco-German company Areva NP. The project is already one year behind schedule. [6]
Yet EDF is planning 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. Construction is expected to start in 2007 with the reactor expected to enter service in 2012.
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” [7] 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”. [8]
The French anti-nuclear group, Sortir du Nucleaire (SN),Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
Six groups, including Greenpeace and SN, filed a legal challenge in the Caen Administrative Court on October 10, 2006, seeking suspension of construction and an end to site preparation work, because the construction project violates provisions of France's Seacoast Protection Act. Sortir du Nucleaire, Greenpeace and another anti-nuclear group, Crilan, have also filed separate challenges on the merits of EDF’s case. [9]
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. [10]
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
In Italy, EDF owns 51% of Edison, which has an installed capacity of 6.6GW and around 16% of the Italian market. In Germany, EDF owns around 45% of the German utility EnBW, which has an installed capacity of 14.02GW of which 4.843GW is nuclear (at the Philippsburg nuclear facility). EnBW has around 80% of the residential and business markets in Baden Wurtemberg. [11]
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. [12] 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.[13]
References
- ↑ EDF SA Shareholders Information website (accessed November, 2006).
- ↑ EDF Annual Report 2005.
- ↑ Presentation of the Group, EDF Group website (accessed November, 2006).
- ↑ "Nuclear Energy and the EPR Project at Flamanville-3", EDF Press Kit, October, 2006.
- ↑ Luke Harding, “Caught Between Global Warming and an Energy Crisis, Blair looks North for Answers”, The Guardian, 14 April, 2006.
- ↑ Platts Nuclear News Flashes, Monday, 30 October, 2006.
- ↑ Alf Young, “Torness plant was 'a £2500m mistake’”, Glasgow Herald, 10 November, 1989.
- ↑ "Nuclear Energy and the EPR Project at Flamanville-3", EDF Press Kit, October, 2006.
- ↑ “Six Anti-EPR Groups will file a Challenge in Caen Administrative Court”, Platts Nuclear News Flashes, 9 October, 2006.
- ↑ Le démantèlement des installations nucléaires et la gestion des déchets radioactifs, Cour des Comptes, January, 2005.
- ↑ EDF Annual Report 2005.
- ↑ " EDF successfully completes public purchase offer for Demasz", EDF Press Release, 15 November, 2006.
- ↑ EDF International North America Inc. website, accessed December, 2006.
