German power exports to France surge to highest in 30 years

German power exports to France jumped to their highest level in more than three decades last year as the nation struggled with prolonged nuclear outages. 

Net exports to Germany’s western neighbor more than doubled to 15.3 terawatt-hours, the most since records began in 1990, according to government data. Overall sales abroad rose by almost 9% to make the nation one of Europe’s leading exporters. 

France has been in desperate need of all the electricity it can get as nuclear output slumped to the lowest in more than three decades as Electricite de France SA had to keep many of its reactors offline for repairs. At the same time, Germany boosted output from its coal and gas plants as most of the continent was short of electricity and as Russian gas imports dwindled. 

By comparison, France’s 2022 electricity generation fell by 15% to 439 terawatt-hours, according to European grid group Entso-e.