Electrical Energy Statistics for France - 2009

In 2009, national electricity consumption reached 486.7 TWh, a decrease of 1.6% compared with 2008 (494.5 TWh). When adjusted for winter and summer climate contingencies and the effect of the leap year in 2008, consumption also shows a decrease of 1.6%. Consumption by business and private customers came to 202.3 TWh, an increase of 2.1% compared with 2008 (198.0 TWh); consumption by large-scale industry and SME/SMIs came to 250.8 TWh, a decrease of 4.6 % compared with 2008 (263.0 TWh). Generation in France came to 519.1 TWh, a decrease of 30 TWh or 5.5% compared with 2008 (549.1 TWh). Hydro-electric generation reached 61.9 TWh, a decrease of 9.0% compared with 2008 (68.0 TWh). Nuclear generation came to 390.0 TWh in 2009, a decrease of 6.8% compared with 2008 (418.3 TWh). At 12.3 TWh, generation from renewable energy sources other than hydro power rose by 27.2% compared with 2008 (9.7 TWh), mainly due to an increase of 41.2% in wind generation (7.9 TWh) compared with 2008 (5.6 TWh). This progression is consistent with the 37.5% rise in installed capacity for wind generation. Fossil thermal generation came to 54.9 TWh, an increase of 3.2% compared with 2008 (53.1 TWh). Over the winter of 2009/2010, the peak load reached 93.1 GW on 11/02/2010, a new absolute record. This value is 0.7% higher than the peak load recorded the previous winter (92.4 GW) on 07/01/2009, even though the temperature on 11/02/2010 was 0.9 deg. C higher than on 07/01/2009. Since 2001, the maximum consumption in winter has increased by 17%, whereas annual French national energy consumption has risen by 8%. During 2009, a total of 14 new substations for various voltage levels were connected to the transmission network. In addition, the length of underground circuits increased by 197 km, and the total length of overhead power lines was cut by 7 km across the entire RTE network. On the distribution networks, the increase of around 10,000 km in 2009 remains in line with those seen over the past three years. Contractual exchanges with other countries are down by 3.9%, reaching a cumulative total value for exports and imports of 111.7 TWh (compared with 116.2 TWh in 2008). The 16.2% decrease in exports and the 25.1% rise in imports caused the balance of exchanges to fall by almost half. The total figure comprising sales by Balance Responsible Entities via Block Exchange Notifications, sales of generation capacity at auctions, and energy sales on the EPEX SPOT market, reached 389.6 TWh, an increase of 1.2% compared with 2008 (385.1 TWh). Statistics on quality of electricity were mainly characterized in 2009 by two exceptional exceptional events in the Provence- Alpes-Cote d'Azur region, as well as by changes to the way equivalent outage time is defined, which now takes into account the impact of load shedding. In terms of the reliability of the power system, the rise in the number of significant events identified in 2009 reflects the impact of one-off occurrences (storms, etc.) or more structural conditions, such as the weak security of supply to certain regional zones