Belgium calls for investigation into significant curbs on electricity exports from France

Belgian energy regulator Creg is calling for a joint French-Belgian investigation into the "massive" curbs on French cross-border transmission capacity, which have restricted electricity exports from the country. French transmission system operator RTE said it was experiencing a tight situation on the grid.

Ongoing restrictions on the transmission capacity of cross-border lines, which French transmission system operator RTE has had to implement to ensure grid security, have significantly affected electricity exports from France. Already low French wholesale electricity prices have consequently remained well below prices in Belgium and Germany.

"Since 11 March, RTE has started massively reducing French [electricity] exports. These problems are significantly affecting the market," one German trader said, according to Montel.

According to Creg, cross-border flows between France and all its neighbouring countries have been restricted to around 40% of maximum transmission capacity. RTE says these restrictions will continue until early May, with similar restrictions returning from August to mid-October.

Long-term transmission capacity between France and Germany available to the market ahead of the spot market auction averaged 2.6 GW over the past week. This is less than half the average of 5.7 GW in the first week of March, Montel reports.

Currently, large differences in wholesale electricity prices between France and neighbouring countries can be observed. On 20 April, the gap between the French and German spot electricity prices reached around 80 EUR/MWh, 40 EUR/MWh in the case of Belgium, and up to 100 EUR/MWh in the case of Italy.

"In a normal context, with normal interconnection capacity, these price differences are much smaller," a Creg spokesperson said.

Causes remain unclear

"At present, Creg and market participants have too little information about the main reasons for this capacity reduction," the Belgian regulator said.

Creg has therefore decided to contact French regulator CRE to jointly identify the cause and extent of these problems, in order to minimise their impact on market prices as much as possible.

The level of cross-border transmission capacity is key to wholesale electricity price formation in an interconnected and integrated market such as Europe. Cross-border capacity available to the market can be significantly reduced only when grid assets, such as power lines or transformers, are unavailable due to a fault or planned maintenance.

Grid assets unavailable

In a report published for market participants on Wednesday, RTE said it was "experiencing a tight situation" on the grid.

It subsequently told Montel that it had to reduce transmission capacity at the borders to ensure the security of the electricity system. This was due to significant electricity exports from France to Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy since 5 March, combined with the unavailability of grid assets, including necessary maintenance in the Lyon area.