French power utility EDF warns of 24-hour strike Wed-Thu

London — French utility EDF has been informed of a 24-hour national strike starting Wednesday at 9:00 pm local time (2000 GMT), it said Monday.

It gave no details of which sites might be affected or the likely impact of the strike.

Some 4-6 GW across nuclear, hydro, coal and gas-fired power plants were affected during similar strikes last year, which had only a limited impact on power prices.

French unions have staged a wave of national strikes against planned pension reforms and have crippled the public transport system since early December.

Mild temperatures are keeping a lid on electricity demand, with peak demand on Thursday pegged at 74.7 GW as average temperatures are forecast to be 4 degrees Celsius above the norm, grid operator RTE's latest forecast showed.

EDF workers are also protesting against plans to restructure the company after the government, which owns an 83.7% stake, asked management to draft plans to divide the nuclear and renewables/grid businesses. A public presentation of these plans has been delayed.

French nuclear output ramped up to 52 GW Monday, the highest so far this winter, with three reactors returning.

At least seven reactors remain offline due to maintenance delays, with French nuclear set for its lowest winter output under the current fleet.

EDF operates France's 58 nuclear reactors as well as gas, coal, hydro and other renewable assets across the country.

--Andreas Franke, andreas.franke@spglobal.com

--Edited by Jonathan Dart, newsdesk@spglobal.com