Catching up on electricity prices

If you, like us, have received electricity bills this week have you noticed amounts charged for "regularisation tarifaire Tarif Bleu...01/08/2014 - 31/10/2014" and for "01/11/2014-31/07/2015"? On our bills these sums add up to about 10 euros, but this may not be the last, as the cost is said to be "about 30 euros spread over 18 months".
This "rattrapage" is to recover sums underpaid to EDF by those of us on the Tarif Bleu, which seems to be the basic tarif. The underpayment arises because EDF raised their prices by less than the prices the regulator had demanded, putting other electricity suppliers at a disadvantage.
Electricity prices are regulated, but there is supposed to be an open market where one can choose a supplier other than EDF. With the recent controversy over what Enerdis (as EDF is now called) could use the Linky meters for, the possibility to say to them "please yourself, I am off to Direct Energie" seems a no win solution.
If EDF cheated by offering us lower prices they should pick up the tab - not us. (end of rant).
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Gas prices to rise

The price of gas will rise between 0.9% and 2.6% in December according to the regulator. This follows a rise in October and is due to higher import and production costs.
Overall in 2016 the regulator points out that prices have fallen by an average of 3.4%. With the weather due to become much colder by the end of this week it may be prudent to get a top-up now.
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The smell of wood smoke

A very typical autumn scent is the smell of wood smoke in the air. Not just the (illegal) burning of bonfires - which seem to be still widespread - but cheminées which are increasingly popular. With electricity prices set to rise and gas already going up, wood is the country's main source of renewable energy and in plentiful supply in our region.
Energy experts advise that burning logs on an open fireplace is the least efficient and most polluting way to burn wood. Closed wood burners or inserts give a much higher return in terms of heat and consumption. The industry employs some 20000 workers in the country and wood is burned by 8 million households.
The region is supposed to have a policy for renewal of forestry supplies, but to judge from the wholesale devastation of some of our local hillsides there seems to be little by way of management and re-planting to safeguard this source of "renewable" energy.
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EDF chief resigns over UK cost

Thomas Piquemal, the financial director of electricity giant EDF, has resigned over the risks to the group of the two nuclear power stations to be built at Hinkley Point, in England.
The cost is estimated at 23.2 billion euros which he reckons will put the group's financial stability at risk at a time when energy markets are depressed. A decision is expected next month to go ahead with the buildings, due to enter service in 2025.
EDF is one of the UK's biggest electricity providers and is 84.5% owned by the French government.
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Top French businessman killed

Christophe de Marjerie the 63 year old managing director of Total, the French multi-national oil company, was killed last night when his private jet collided with a snow plough when trying to take off from a small airfield near Moscow.
Paris based Total is one of the few oil companies not American owned or controlled and de Marjerie spent his whole career making Total one of the top 20 companies in the world and France's richest enterprise. He had important links with the Russian oil producers and government and was returning from a visit to Medvedev's country dacha.
Renowned for his ex-Raj like moustache ( he looked like a trombone player in a brass band, one paper said) and affable manner, de Marjerie was the product of the French upper middle class, privately educated and from a family that included the founder of the Taittinger champagne house. He said coming from a privileged background entailed certain responsibilities to give back to society the opportunities he had been afforded.
In 2006 he was arrested, handcuffed and humiliated ("without belt or glasses")  during the so-called Total affair when the company was suspected of subverting the "oil for aid" programme of the United Nations.  All charges were thrown out by the courts after 8 years of investigation and a court hearing in 2013.
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Energy prices to rise

From 1st October GDF Suez will increase gas prices by 3.9% and will review prices each month rather than annually. EDF will follow with a 2% electricity price rise at some time during the autumn.
Both these markets are strictly regulated by government set tariffs but are theoretically open to competition from other suppliers. But 7 years after the market was opened up, only 9% of consumers have switched from  EDF with more like 25% moving from GDF. Perhaps we should be grateful not to be pestered by callers offering to switch our supplier to someone cheaper every few weeks as in the UK - but perhaps we should think about saving money or just keeping warm at a lower price. You pays your money etc.
Still on the subject of gas, Mme Royal, the Minister for Energy and Environment, confirmed her opposition to exploring for shale gas (gaz de schiste) in France, preferring to promote energy saving and renewables unless an alternative to "fracking" could be found. Last week Nicholas Sarkozy said it was senseless to deprive the French economy of a source of home produced gas when the supply could be threatened at any time.
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