1. Regulated electricity tariffs in France

1.1 Panorama

In 2007, total gross consumption on the French power system was 478 TWh, for more than 30 million connected sites, with consumption excluding losses at 448 TWh. Total French production amounted to 545 TWh.

Since 2000, the downstream electricity market has been gradually opened up to competition (the stages in this process can be found, for example, on the website of the Commission de régulation de l'énergie, CRE). As a result, two approaches to retail pricing coexist:

• regulated sales tariffs set by the public authorities based on the cost of electricity (production, marketing and transmission) delivered by the incumbent supplier EDF for this customer segment;

• market...