Paris — French utility EDF expects profit to decline again this year as low electricity prices erode income, adding pressure to the state-owned group ahead of major investment in its nuclear reactor fleet.
France’s dominant power producer, EDF is operating in a significantly oversupplied market where benchmark power prices recently hit their lowest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Prices are falling as more renewable energy comes online, while industrial electricity demand remains sluggish.
The company is trying to tap and speed up demand from new energy-intensive projects like data centres by making some of its former industrial sites available to developers interested in accessing the grid connections already in place.
Core profit for 2025, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, fell 19% on a year earlier to 29.3 billion euros ($34.4 billion), EDF said on Friday, despite nuclear power output in France hitting its highest in six years.
Profits will “slightly” decline again this year, added EDF, which relies on French market prices for about half of its income.
INCREASING USAGE IS PRIORITY
The benchmark year-ahead power contract dropped to around 50 euros per megawatt-hour in October, below EDF’s cost of operations estimated by French energy regulator CRE and about half of the 103 euros/MWh that EDF reported as responsible for the 2025 profits.
EDF is trying to stimulate demand to support prices.
“Regarding current market prices, we are working a lot on increasing electricity usage in the power mix so that we can produce more, in order to sell more. I think that’s the group’s priority today,” Claude Laruelle, executive director in charge of finance, told journalists after reporting results.
Net investments reached 24 billion euros in 2025, including 7.1 billion for the development of new nuclear reactors, which mainly went to the Hinkley Point C nuclear project in Britain, the company said.
Investment levels were above what was expected for 2025, and well over EDF’s normal capital expenditures, said Nicolas Goldberg, partner at Paris-based Columbus Consulting, adding that they offer a clue to what can be expected in coming years as the French company plans massive capital investments in its nuclear fleet and power grid.
The company’s capital expenditure has grown sharply in recent years, up more than 5 billion euros since 2023.
An estimated 70 billion euros will be needed over the coming decade for for six new reactors, with the first expected to start operations in 2038, and more than 100 billion euros for maintenance in its 56 ageing reactors.
“Maintaining net income over time will be critical for the company’s future investments, and is far from guaranteed given the downward pressure on market prices,” added Goldberg
($1 = 0.8508 euros)
Reporting by Forrest Crellin; Editing by David Holmes Editing by Dominique Patton and David Goodman – Reuters
