TL;DRFrance’s Parliament adopted a bill that breaks EDF’s near-monopoly on hydropower by converting concessions to permits and requiring annual auctions of 6 GW. The reform ends more than a decade of EU legal pressure and could unlock billions in pumped-hydro investment.
France’s Parliament adopted a bill on Tuesday that dismantles the monopoly Électricité de France has held over the country’s hydropower market for decades, according to Bloomberg. The law converts EDF’s hydropower concessions into permits and requires the state-owned utility to auction 6 gigawatts of capacity each year under the supervision of France’s energy regulator, CRE.
EDF operates 20.5 GW of hydroelectric dams, roughly 80% of mainland France’s hydropower capacity. That dominance has drawn EU scrutiny since 2005, when the European Commission opened infringement proceedings against France for granting incumbent operators a preference right that effectively locked out competitors.
What the law changes
The bill replaces the old concession system with a permit-based model. Crucially, it opens auctions not just to energy suppliers but also to manufacturers, broadening the pool of potential bidders.
