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ENERGY

Vattenfall loses reduced charges case

Energy giant Vattenfall has been ordered to pay €50 million to its competitors and reduce its network charges, after losing a court battle with German regulators on Thursday.

Published: 14 August 2008 11:59 CEST
Vattenfall loses reduced charges case
Photo:DPA

Customers both private and corporate should now see their power bills reduced. Vattenfall Europe Transmission GmbH had resisted the Federal Network Agency’s reduction of network charges by 18 percent, which took place in June 2006.

Regulation authorities had intended to increase competition within the energy market with the move, opening it up to new suppliers who had been complaining that they were being discriminated against.

The agency had also ordered Vattenfall to reduce its bills to cancel out its increased profits from the excessive network charges gained between November 2005 and June 2006.

The Düsseldorf high court had decided against Vattenfall over the network charges, but in its favour over compensation for the profit, leading to both parties to appeal to Germany’s Federal Supreme Court of Justice.

BUSINESS

France’s EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

French energy giant EDF has unveiled net profit of €10billion and cut its massive debt by increasing nuclear production after problems forced some plants offline.

Published: 16 February 2024 10:45 CET
France's EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

EDF hailed an “exceptional” year after its loss of €17.9billion in 2022.

Sales slipped 2.6 percent to €139.7billion , but the group managed to slice debt by €10billion euros to €54.4billion.

EDF said however that it had booked a €12.9 billion depreciation linked to difficulties at its Hinkley Point nuclear plant in Britain.

The charge includes €11.2 billion for Hinkley Point assets and €1.7billion at its British subsidiary, EDF Energy, the group explained.

EDF announced last month a fresh delay and additional costs for the giant project hit by repeated cost overruns.

“The year was marked by many events, in particular by the recovery of production and the company’s mobilisation around production recovery,” CEO Luc Remont told reporters.

EDF put its strong showing down to a strong operational performance, notably a significant increase in nuclear generation in France at a time of historically high prices.

That followed a drop in nuclear output in France in 2022. The group had to deal with stress corrosion problems at some reactors while also facing government orders to limit price rises.

The French reactors last year produced around 320.4 TWh, in the upper range of expectations.

Nuclear production had slid back in 2022 to 279 TWh, its lowest level in three decades, because of the corrosion problems and maintenance changes after
the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hinkley Point C is one of a small number of European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) worldwide, an EDF-led design that has been plagued by cost overruns
running into billions of euros and years of construction delays.

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