Both reactors at the 2.6 GW Golfech nuclear power plant in southwest France are set to come offline Tuesday night due to heat-related environmental issues, operator EDF said Monday.
Golfech 2 is scheduled to ramp down to zero output by Tuesday 11 pm local time (2100 GMT), followed by Golfech 2 from Wednesday 2 am (0000 GMT).
The provisional return date for both units is 11:59 pm local time July 30, EDF said in an update Monday afternoon.
"The end date of this unavailability for environmental issues corresponds to the end of the available temperature forecasts," EDF said, adding "this unavailability may be prolonged." EDF warned last Thursday that "due to temperature forecasts on the Garonne [river], production restrictions are likely to affect EDF's nuclear generation at Golfech from July 23." A seven-day outage for the Golfech nuclear plant is equivalent to around 440 GWh in lost generation, according to S&P Global Platts calculations.
System operator RTE forecasts French electricity demand to peak at 59 GW Thursday with average temperatures 8.9 degrees Celsius above seasonal norms.
Temperatures are set to drop from Friday to around 3 C above norms by next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, EDF delayed the planned return of its 1.5 GW Chooz 2 reactor by only three days to August 1. The unit has been offline since March for an extended overhaul once every ten years. It is the first of seven reactors undergoing such overhauls this year to return.
Similar outages at Paluel 4 and Flamanville 2 were delayed by a couple of months to mid-September and mid-October respectively, EDF said July 11.
French front-month baseload power traded little changed from Friday's close at Eur38.80/MWh on Monday, EEX data showed. The contract already rose 25% over the past fortnight to reach Eur44/MWh early last week in expectation of a possible heatwave in late July.
Meanwhile strong wind generation in the GB market Monday saw flows reverse on the IFA link to France, with exports topping 1 GW for five half hourly periods in the morning.
GB wind generation of around 11 GW for much of Monday, however, was set to drop Tuesday to around 4 GW.
