majority MP Aurore Bergé rules out a spike in the bill

“We will continue to protect the French both on the risk of shortage and on prices.” The president of the Renaissance deputies (ex-LREM) Aurore Bergé excluded Friday August 26, on Europe 1, that the energy bill of the French increases “from 35 to 50%” in the face of soaring electricity prices. Wholesale electricity prices for 2023 topped 1,000 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh) on Friday, from around 85 euros a year ago.

The purchasing power law voted in early August “includes provisions which allow, until the end of the year, to protect the French”recalled the MP. “We will have another budget debate” in the fall when “the question of energy, both the risk of shortage and prices, will obviously be raised to continue to protect the French”she added. “We have made efforts so that this bill does not increase in the same dimensions as everywhere else in other countries of the world”said the MP.

Several causes are at the origin of the explosion of prices, in particular the drying up of Russian gas flows to Europe since the start of the war in Ukraine while many thermal power stations use gas to generate electricity. In France, only 24 of EDF’s 56 nuclear reactors are operating at the moment, in particular due to a corrosion problem, which is reducing French electricity production to a historically low level, and mechanically driving up prices.