Overview of electrical energy in april 2003

This document aims to give information on the exploitation of the transmission public network and the french electric power industry during april 2003: the internal electric power consumption in France (national consumption is the total of all the electrical energy supplied for consumption in France (including Corsica, but not the French Overseas Departments), thermal and hydro generation + imports - exports - pumping, and which have been consumed in the transmission and distribution networks, by the end-users, as well as by losses) - national consumption in April 2003 shows a rise of 3.5% compared with the figure of April 2002, despite a higher-than-average temperature of 0.6 deg. C in April 2003 compared with the same month of the prior year. Adjusted for climatic effects, monthly consumption is up 4.0% compared with that of April 2002. The consumption growth rate adjusted over 12 months has risen 0.2% since last month. As for the national consumption growth rate, it increased from +1.5% at the end of March 2003 to +2.0% at the end of April 2003; the energy accounting from the transmission point of view (the balance recorded by RTE takes into account only the energy physical flows conveyed on the RTE network) - in April 2003, consumption was up compared with April 2002, but exports dropped by 1.2 TWh. The overall volume of injections consequently rose by 0.1 TWh, for a total figure of 42.3 TWh. Thermal generation dropped by 0.8 TWh compared with April 2002, while hydro output was up by 0.6 TWh. Imports increased by about 0.3 TWh; the consumption and the physical exchanges (these values reflect all of the flows on the RTE network, as well as the generation auto-consumed by the industrial consumers connected to this network); the electric power market: the market players, contractual exchanges recorded by RTE contracts for access to international connections, contractual exchanges by border; and the evolution of the transmission network: April witnessed the final decommissioning of the Dechy-Waziers 225 kV line from RTE network, in northern France. (A.L.B.)