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France tops Europe’s power export league of nations

France maintained its position as Europe’s top net exporter of power in the first half of this year.

A new report by Montel Analytics shows that in the first six months of 2024, France exported 40.8TWh more power than it imported – a 31.2% increase on its net exports in the second half of last year.

August 2nd, 2024

The rise was attributed to increased nuclear generation due to some of the country’s nuclear plants coming back on stream after a period offline, persistently low demand due mainly to behind-themeter output from residential solar panels, and a surplus of hydro output. France maintained a high level of exports despite frequently ramping down solar and wind generation during periods of negative prices, and regular export limitations towards Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

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“Electricity output in France increased in the first half of this year while demand remained stubbornly low, continuing a trend that has been seen since the start of the Covid pandemic. The rise in output can be attributed to the return of large parts of the nuclear fleet and higher than anticipated levels of hydro output.

“Nuclear production increased by 10% from H2 2023 to H1 2024 and the rainiest spring for a decade led to above-normal levels of hydro production for virtually the whole of the first half of this year. Meanwhile, individual habits taken during the winter of 2023 to save energy and the absence of any discernible economic recovery kept demand 10% lower than in H1 2021, meaning that France often had a surplus of power which was exported to neighbouring countries.”

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Clement Bouilloux, senior analyst at Montel Analytics, said:

Most of the power from France flowed to Great Britain (11.7TWh), with Italy (9.4TWh), Germany (8.8TWh) and Switzerland (7.4TWh) also importing significant quantities from France. Sweden remained the second highest net exporter of power in first half of 2024, sending 15.3TWh to other countries. Netherlands overtook Norway to become the third highest net exporter (8.8TWh), while the latter had net outflows of 7.4TWh.

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“An increase in solar capacity and new offshore wind farms coming fully online were key reasons why the Netherlands leapfrogged Norway into third place in the net exports league table. When solar farms were generating in the Netherlands, particularly in the second quarter of this year, this produced periods of massive excess, with conventional power and imports only required in the night, early morning and evening periods. In contrast, Norway’s hydro reserves dropped from levels seen in the second half of last year, which reduced the pressure to dump cheap power into neighbouring countries.”

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Jean-Paul Harreman, director at Montel Analytics, said:

Italy remained the biggest net importer in first half of 2024, sourcing 25.4TWh from outside the country, of which 9.4TWh came from France and 10.3TWh from Switzerland. Britain ranked in second place, sourcing 18.9TWh, of which 11.7TWh came from France and 4.8TWh from Norway.

Montel Analytics’ report describes the value of imports and exports in Europe during the first six months of the year. When net exports as a percentage of demand was taken into consideration, Sweden overtook Bosnia at the top of this table, exporting 21.7% of its power. Bosnia ranked second with 20.7% of its electricity flowing to other countries, followed closely by Slovenia in third place (20.1%).

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European cross-border flows 2024

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