Luc Rémont, the new CEO of French energy group EDF, was prepared – and yet it was a difficult exercise. On Feb. 17, he had to announce a historic loss of €17.9 billion in 2022 and a debt of €64.5 billion that has doubled since 2018.
So is EDF a financial drag on the government in Paris? The group, which was fully nationalized last year, offers a very welcome political lever in the land of the yellow vests – especially to ease social tensions. One example? In 2022, the government decreed that the company would finance the electricity price brake to protect households and businesses from rising energy prices. The resulting cost to EDF is €8 billion, because the electricity price structure in France currently forces EDF to sell consumers electricity that is ten times cheaper than the cost of production.
The debt, astronomical as it may be, can remain manageable if – and only if – EDF manages to bring in new money. That is, by selling more and more expensive electricity. So Paris is turning to Brussels. And this is where the Brussels quartet comes in: taxonomy, hydrogen, electricity market reform, and the green industry, which goes by the cute acronym NZIA (Net-Zero Industry Act).