EDF announced “exceptional” results for the year 2023 on Friday February 16. The French electrician reports profits of 10 billion euros, which can be explained in particular by a recovery in nuclear production. EDF had recorded nearly 18 billion euros in losses in 2022, due to a “sudden drop in nuclear production in France relating to the phenomenon of stress corrosion” and “exceptional regulatory measures to limit the increase prices for consumers” (the “tariff shield”), according to a press release from the group.
The electrician explains last year’s recovery in particular by its “very good operational performance with a significant increase of 41.4 TWh in nuclear production in France”. French reactors produced some 320.4 TWh in 2023, at the top of the announced range. In 2022, nuclear production had fallen to 279 TWh, its lowest level in 30 years, against a backdrop of industrial difficulties: discovery of a corrosion problem, shift in maintenance schedules linked to the Covid health crisis.
A favorable context
EDF also explains its good results by a context of “high prices” in Europe and by the end of the “tariff shield”. In this context, the electricity bill increased on February 1, 2024 by less than 10% for 20 million households subscribed to electricity, including 10.6 million at the base rate, i.e. the rate “blue” from EDF, fixed without off-peak hours. For around 400,000 individual subscribers who have subscribed to a so-called “peak day cancellation” option, the price increased by 10.1%.
The government had committed to keeping this increase limited to 10%. The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, affirmed in January that this increase in tariffs was “necessary to guarantee our capacity to invest in new electricity production capacities” and to “definitely get out of whatever it costs “.
10 billion less debt
The group also reduced the amount of its net financial debt in 2023, dropping it from 64.5 billion euros in 2022 to 54.4 billion last year.
EDF, on the other hand, suffered a depreciation of 12.9 billion euros linked mainly to the difficulties at the construction site of its nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point, in Great Britain.