EDF’s core profits to take a €29bn hit this year from outages at France’s nuclear reactors

EDF warned that core profits would take a €29bn hit this year from
outages at France’s nuclear reactors, a sharp rise on its previous forecast
just weeks ahead of full renationalisation by the French government.

More than half of the 56 reactors run by EDF are offline, a record number, as
corrosion problems discovered at some sites add to maintenance stoppages,
including some that were delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic. That has pushed
output close to all-time lows, sapping electricity supply in a country that
is normally an exporter of power and forcing the company to buy power on
wholesale markets that have become hugely costly as Russia chokes gas
supplies to Europe.

EDF had previously estimated the hit to its earnings
before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation at €24bn for 2022.
The French government is poised in the coming weeks to launch a tender
offer for the 16 per cent of EDF it does not already own. It has said it
wants to take full control as EDF gears up to build new reactors and
addresses problems with its fleet of reactors. The faults have turned the
spotlight on France’s once-mighty nuclear industry just as orders for new
plants had begun to pick up again worldwide — and have heightened a
stand-off between the state and EDF management.

FT 15th Sept 2022

https://www.ft.com/content/a9966ad5-e1a2-4bed-b702-ca662f0b44c0