France's EDF warns of 24-hour strike, delays Chooz 1 return to Feb 28

French utility EDF has warned of a 24-hour strike starting on Jan. 18 and delayed two reactor returns by a combined 40 days into February, it said Jan. 13.

The industrial action coincides with a nationwide protest on pension reform planned for Jan. 19.

A series of strikes by EDF workers in the autumn delayed maintenance at a number of reactors that returned later than planned.

EDF on Jan. 13 also delayed planned returns from maintenance for the 1.5-GW Chooz-1 and 900-MW Blayais 1 reactors.

Chooz-1, offline since December 2021, has been delayed by over four weeks to Feb. 28, EDF said.

Unit 2 at Chooz is still scheduled to return Jan. 22, just days after the planned return of Civaux-1 where signs of stress corrosion were first detected in 2021.

Impact on production from the strike set to start Jan. 18 at 9:00 pm local time depends on security of supply regulation during industrial action.

Temperatures are forecast to dip below seasonal norms on Jan. 18 with grid operator RTE projecting peak demand to reach 75.1 GW before factoring in any demand reduction impacts from strikes, which are also set to impact transport and other sectors.

Power for February delivery rebounded some 4% on the day to trade at Eur200/MWh on EEX.

The contract was trading above Eur1,000/MWh for much of the autumn before risk premiums started to vanish as EDF managed to return reactors, boosting output to 44 GW early January out of 61 GW installed capacity.

Eight reactors are scheduled to return before the end of February, with nine units set to come offline for planned 2023 maintenance.

FRENCH REACTOR WATCHLIST JAN/FEB 2023

Source: EDF (compiled by S&P Global Commodity Insights from EDF Transparency notes to Jan. 13)