French state-owned electric utility company Electricite de France (EDF) has revealed plans to acquire General Electric‘s (GE) French turbine unit, which maintains and manufactures turbines for nuclear power plants in France.
French Ecological Transition Minister Barbara Pompili told Franceinfo radio about the company’s plans to acquire the business earlier this week.
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Pompili noted that adding turbines to EDF’s production capabilities was expected to help expedite the country’s decarbonisation efforts, but did not give any further details of the planned acquisition.
Last September, Agence-France Presse (AFP) reported that EDF was in talks with GE to acquire its steam turbine business for nuclear plants.
An EDF spokesperson told AFP that the company was ‘studying the conditions in which its interests could be maintained’.
GE carries out its nuclear activities in France through the GE Steam Power unit, which it acquired through a €12.5bn ($13.9bn) deal with Alstom in 2015.
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By GlobalDataSeeking Alpha reported that by selling its French unit to EDF, GE intends to fully focus on its gas turbines and renewable energy business.
EDF intends the deal to allow it to build nuclear power plants in the country to ensure energy independence and meet climate transition requirements.
Earlier this week, EDF announced that it is revising its 2022 forecast for its French nuclear output range from 300TWh-330TWh to 295TWh-315TWh.
The company revised its 2022 forecast for the second time in less than a month as part of its control programme on the French nuclear fleet.
Last month, EDF revised its nuclear output estimate from 330TWh-360TWh to 300TWh-330TWh for the year.
The revision was made due to an extension of the outage period for five of EDF’s French nuclear reactors.
The company also plans to update its French nuclear output estimate for next year, which currently stands at 340-370TWh, ‘as soon as possible’.
