The October juice – no, not the one you drink, but the one that fuels your coffee maker – has just published its statistics. Review of production in graphs, remembering that, according to the latest IPCC report “the electricity sector must achieve zero net CO emissions2 before the entire economy in the least financially costly scenarios“. This is the case of the electrical system of continental France, which shows 96.3% Low carbon production by October 2024 (nuclear and renewables).
The production base for October is broken down as follows into theoretical capacities (that is, without taking into account maintenance stops and for wind, photovoltaic and hydraulic power to the maximum possible, in winds and sunshine):
Production presents a quite different distribution from that of the park, mainly due to the highly variable nature of wind, solar and hydraulic production linked to the sources used. While the nuclear base offers stability and control according to consumption demand, but also to compensate for the lack of renewable production or, on the contrary, step aside to make room for it when there is a lot of wind and/or sun. As shown in the graphs below, nuclear production is controlled based on consumption and this intermittent production, while ensuring the majority of needs.
October wind production shows its intermittent nature, even for one of the windiest months of the year. With a maximum of 13,044 MW out of 24,203 MW of installed capacity and a minimum that drops to 796 MW, with variations of more than 10,000 MW in just a few hours.
Solar production is evidently marked by the day/night alternation, but also by variations in cloud cover at midday that strongly modulate its efficiency. Thus, after a peak at solar noon on October 5 with 14,567 MW, it drops to less than 5,000 MW the day after tomorrow at the same time.
With the rise of renewable energies, situations arise in which their production, carried by strong winds and over the entire territory, and/or a Sun barely hidden by clouds, acquires such importance that it is necessary to restrict the performance of nuclear power plants. in to equalize consumption, internal and exported. We see it in these two graphs where periods of very high wind or solar production are accompanied by a controlled decrease in that of nuclear power plants.
The main consequence of the intermittency of the means of solar and wind production when they constitute the majority of the installed power is the need for a controllable backup to compensate for periods in which their production is insufficient. If these means of production use fossil fuels, we obtain the German case illustrated by the situation on November 19 at 11 a.m. where greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming, from its electrical system are estimated at close to 400 gCO2/kWh compared to 31 g in the French system. For all of 2023, although there was still some nuclear power in the German system, its emissions were 371 gCO2/kWh.
Good nuclear production has enabled strong exports of low-carbon electricity to our neighbors. with a monthly balance of 8,013 GWh, which represents 18.9% of total production. Throughout the year, EDF should break its historical electricity export record, with more than 80 TWh.
All this information is available in RTE Statistics, which also offers a smartphone application that allows you to follow production, consumption, prices, exchanges, etc. hour by hour.
Here you have the image of all the production for the month of October that we can extract from it:
Sylvestre Huet
