Economic Daily, Paris Telegraph. Recently, according to a report published by the French Transmission Grid Corporation, at the beginning of this year, French imports of electricity set the highest record since the winter of 1980. In January of this year, France suffered a severe cold wave once in 60 years, during which the average temperature was 6% to 8% lower than in previous years. In order to ensure power supply and power security, France imports a large amount of electricity from neighboring countries. According to relevant statistics, at the beginning of the year, EDF’s subsidiary in charge of high-voltage and UHV transmission systems imported a total of 95 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, the highest record since the winter of 1980. During this period, Germany, Spain and Belgium all exported large amounts of electricity to France.
　　 

The French Transmission Grid Corporation pointed out in the report that the electricity consumption in France in January this year increased by 14.3% compared with the same period last year, and the peak during the period reached 94.2 million kilowatts, the highest value since 2012. Affected by the unstable operation of domestic nuclear power plants, France's demand for electricity supply increased significantly at the beginning of this year. Due to factors such as nuclear power plant maintenance and pressure testing of large equipment, France has shut down more than 20 reactors since last fall, accounting for about one-third of the total number of nuclear power plants in France. Although most nuclear power plants were connected to the grid in time before the cold wave at the beginning of the year, nuclear power generation still fell by 2.6% in January this year, and wind power generation fell by 30%. In contrast, the power generation of thermal power plants, especially gas turbine combined cycle power generation, rose to 81%, reaching 830 million kilowatt-hours, maintaining the balance between traditional fossil fuels and renewable energy power generation.