In 2010, the French government passed a law aiming at reforming the organization of the electricity market. Such Law on the "New Organization of Market in Electricity" (hereafter, the NOME law) has been implemented in fall last year and has set up a regulated access to the historic nuclear production of EDF. EDF's competitors that supply electricity to final consumers in France can now benefit from electricity generated by EDF's nuclear power plants at a regulated access tariff, such access tariff equalling 40 €/MWh from the 1 July 2011 and 42 €/MWh after the 1 January 2012.
This new scheme in force in order to boost competition of the French power market is called "Regulated Access to the Historic Nuclear Power" (in French: "ARENH" = Accès Régulé à l'Electricité Nucléaire Historique).
Since the implementation of the NOME Law, application decrees and orders have been published in order to determine the exact mechanisms and conditions under which EDF's competitors will be granted quantities at nuclear prices and will be able to use it to deliver their clients.
Rules related to the volumes allocated & Main results
The volume of Arenh allocated to each supplier depends on its current and projected clients' portfolio as well as on its consumption forecasts, measured during the hours of "low consumption" in France (these specific hours are fixed in the ministerial decree of May 17, 2011).
The delivery periods of ARENH last twelve months and are composed of two "biannual desks" enabling suppliers to update the ARENH volumes necessary to cover the consumption of their customers. However, such updates are accepeted by EDF taking into account "monotony" constraints and the fact that the total ARENH volume delivered must not exceed 100 TWh per year for all suppliers.
As of last December, the results of the ARENH system was the following:
It is relevant to mention that the proposed 100 TWh "cap" of ARENH volume hasn't been reached yet and that the Loi NOME may not have improved competition as expected on the French power market.