Electric bill: 50% increase by 2020
Thursday, July 19th, 2012
A 49% increase in nine years of the electricity bill of French households. This is one of the points in the report of the investigating committee of the Senate on the actual cost of electricity has not divided the parliament. Echoing the forecast of the CRE (Commission for Energy Regulation), Senators recall that the annual bill of a "typical household" equipped with electric heating, no change in consumer behavior, will increase from EUR 874.5 in 2011 to 1307 euros in 2020. And this duty, but including the CSPE (Contribution to the utility electricity) should be multiplied by 2.5 over the period. CSPE finance, among other missions, the development of renewable energy.
Rising prices will be driven by a need for massive investment in networks (cuts have increased in France) and the means of production to satisfy a growing consumer, the higher costs of nuclear costs, and finally the price of development renewables.
The cost of megawatt underestimated
Unusually in Parliament, senators have published an investigative report without vote in the findings: each political group has its own, differing views on the sensitive issue of nuclear costs. As summarized by Wednesday Senator John Desessard ecologist, rapporteur, "electricity is an electrical issue between us." The environmental group had requested in February the creation of this commission of inquiry to extend the report of the Court of Auditors on the cost of the atomic chain. The Senate voluminous document (330 pages plus an appendix of 130 pages) is based on the work of the Court of Auditors but "each group draw from these figures different interpretations."
For Jean Desessard, it is clear from the survey that "the cost of megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity is underestimated French (…) first (because) the cost of nuclear power is higher than previously says. " The Committee noted the figure adopted by the Court of Auditors, 49 no fax payday loan.5 € / MWh, compared to € 42 / MWh apply from 1 January Nome by law already includes the cost of extending power and dismantling . The UMP of the Senate, in its conclusions, points out that this figure of 49.5 € / MWh is challenged, for accounting purposes and method. It also refutes the cost of MWh produced by the EPR under construction at Flamanville, estimated at € 90 MWh by the rapporteur.
But low cost invoice salt in France
Senators agree however that there is much uncertainty about the future cost of nuclear electricity, including related costs of decommissioning. In the "worst case scenario," as John describes Desessard, that is to say, if the upper range of these uncertainties become reality, the cost of nuclear MWh would amount to € 75. Despite these uncertainties, nuclear power is "a historically competitive industry," the report said. It will take three to four years before the PV reaches comparable costs.
The report presents three scenarios for production and electricity demand by 2050. The scenario "sobriety", which will involve "very proactive energy savings" and a quick exit from the nuclear stopping all reactors when they reach their 40 years, is, not surprisingly, the favorite of Green Jean Desessard. But he admits honestly, "it is also more expensive." The Socialist group said in its conclusions that it does not stick.
Finally, a paradoxical observation made unanimously by the members of the committee of inquiry: if France benefits from the current production costs among the lowest in Europe, thanks to nuclear, French households pay the highest bill, largely because of a hexagonal specificity: the weight of electric heating.
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