Europe

Sweden overtakes France to become Europe’s biggest net power exporter

Prolonged outages at France’s nuclear reactors mean that only about half have been available

Leila Nezirevic  | 11.08.2022 - Update : 11.08.2022
Sweden overtakes France to become Europe’s biggest net power exporter

LONDON 

Sweden has overtaken France as the biggest net exporter of power in Europe with supply from French nuclear power plants hitting historic lows.

According to energy data analyst Enappsys Ltd., most of Sweden’s electricity has been exported to Finland and Denmark while France has imported more power this year than it has exported.

Jean-Paul Harreman, director at Enappsys, said “France’s nuclear issues have resulted in an exceptional net-import position for the French market” and that this has been intensified by high gas prices, which made it less financially attractive for France to export the usual amounts of gas to Europe, which in turn “has pushed gas assets out of merit across Europe.”

French nuclear power stations are of great importance to the European power system, but prolonged outages meant that out of the country’s 56 nuclear reactors, only about half are available, which pushed prices to their highest levels in the region.

Europe is facing an even deeper energy crisis as France now sources large amounts of power from other countries in the continent.

Germany and the UK increased net exports of power during the same period, while Sweden’s total net exports amounted to 16 terawatt-hours in the first half of 2022, which led to the country becoming Europe's biggest net electricity exporter.

Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.