The electricity producer EDF announced on Monday that it is revising its gross operating surplus (Ebitda) forecast sharply downwards for the year 2022, due to corrosion problems in its nuclear fleet and the volume of electricity that the state forces him to sell at a low price.
The group estimates on the one hand the impact of Arenh (Regulated access to historical nuclear electricity), i.e. the volume of nuclear electricity that the State obliges it to sell to suppliers low-cost competitors, at 10.2 billion euros, against 8.4 billion initially estimated.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: the State wants to protect EDF from new increases
Separately, EDF estimates that the drop in its production planned for 2022, in particular because of the corrosion problems which force the shutdown of several reactors, will cost it 16 billion euros in EBITDA, against 11 billion euros initially estimated.
By comparison, in 2021, EDF's EBITDA was 18 billion euros, for a turnover of 84.5 billion euros.
The increase in the impact of the two elements, which therefore now reaches the figure of 26 billion euros, is explained by the evolution of forward prices in 2022, explains EDF in its press release, "
in an extremely volatile market context
".
At the request of the State on January 14, and according to a decree published on Sunday, EDF will indeed have to buy on the market 20 additional terawatt hours at the price of 257 euros per MWh, to resell them to electricity suppliers at the rate of 46 .2 euros per MWh.
In total, EDF will have to sell 120 TWh at the Arenh tariff this year, out of nuclear production estimated at 295 to 315 TWh.
Increase in capital
The energy company also believes that the work to be carried out in connection with the corrosion problems is "
likely to weigh on the group's ability to achieve its objectives
", without taking into account the possible effects of the war in Ukraine, "
difficult to quantify
" .
.
Faced with the double impact of the Arenh and the drop in production, EDF had announced during the presentation of its annual results a capital increase of 2.5 billion euros, in which the State announced that it would participate in the amount of 2.1 billion euros.
