BE 2025 - Échanges [EN]

France’s net balance in 2025 was 92.3 TWh of exports. For the second year in a row, it was the highest since the beginning of trading between France and the other European countries, exceeding the 2024 export balance (89.0 TWh), in a generally similar context. For comparison, this represents a  volume similar to the total electricity consumption of a country such as Belgium (around 80 TWh in 2025).

The balance of trade was very positive across all borders except to Spain, where trade was more balanced. It amounted to 22.6 TWh with Great Britain, 20.1 TWh with Switzerland, 26.2 TWh with Italy, 23.1 TWh with the Core region, i.e. the borders with Germany and Belgium, and 0.2 TWh with Spain. 

The drop in hydropower production was offset by the return of nuclear power to pre-pandemic levels, as well as the increase in solar power output due to growth in the installed base and favourable sunshine conditions.

In addition, consumption remained stable compared with 2024, and is still below pre-crisis levels (see the Consumption chapter). Finally, the large 
export balances of 2024 and 2025 were enabled by the development of interconnections and the growing integration of Europe’s electricity markets.

These trends confirm the diagnosis of the recent 2025 Generation Adequacy Report: the abundance of French low-carbon electricity generation puts the country in a very favourable position to decarbonise quickly and reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, which still account for almost 60% of its total energy consumption.

France remained Europe's leading net exporter of electricity by volume, as it has been almost every year for the past three decades¹ (excluding 2016, 2017² and 2022). France exported the equivalent of 17% of its output in 2025, similar to the 2024 level (16.5%). France is not the only country to export 
such a high proportion of the electricity it generates: some northern European countries such as Norway and Sweden also have high export rates – around 22% for Sweden in 2025 – thanks to their large renewable generation capacity, mainly hydropower and wind. Conversely, other countries such as Italy, Portugal and Great Britain³ rely heavily on imports to cover their electricity consumption, in proportions of up to 15–20%.

Comparable proportions of exports had previously been achieved in France between 1992 and 2002, when they oscillated between 12% and 15% of national production. This was a time when the nuclear fleet had grown strongly and consumption was at lower levels than today (see the Focus on the historical view of French power trading).

At the monthly level, the export balance remained strongly positive in every month of 2025, extending the trend observed since mid-2023. Values were slightly lower in the first half-year than in the second, driven by consumption and by higher prices at the beginning of the year.

Historically high levels of exports were recorded from July until the end of the year, driven by particularly significant trade with Great Britain, Italy, Germany and Belgium. Over this period, consumption remained virtually unchanged from the previous year (+0.1 TWh per month on average). At the same time, low-carbon generation increased overall: +1.2  TWh per month on average for nuclear, +0.8 TWh for wind, +0.7 TWh for solar. Only hydropower output fell, by an average of −1 TWh per month. December saw a new monthly export record, reaching 10.5  TWh. During this month, nuclear generation reached a level not seen since January 2019

Before 1945, electricity played a relatively minor role in the country’s energy system. The first power stations in France, built at the end of the 19th century, were either hydroelectric or coal-fired. Electricity became widely
used over the first half of the 20th century, particularly for lighting, but there was still no unified transmission grid, and generating facilities were mostly private, for industrial use. The bulk of electricity generation came from coal and hydropower.

From the post-war period until the end of the 1970s, electricity consumption increased significantly (+1% per year on average), against a backdrop of strong economic growth and the electrification of the country. The first interconnection between the French, Swiss and German networks was created in 1958.

Following the first oil crisis in 1973, France rapidly developed a large fleet of nuclear reactors to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. During this period, 48 nuclear reactors were commissioned between 1978 and 1989⁴. At the same time, the development of electrification was encouraged, particularly by incentivising the installation of electric heating and water heaters. However, under the combined effect of energy-saving policies, slower economic growth and the oil crisis of 1986, which led to sustained low fossil fuel prices until the end of the 1990s, electricity consumption did not grow as fast as projected, leading to a structural surplus of electricity generation in France, which could then be exported.

As a result, France's trade balance recorded a surplus from 1981, and exceeded 60  TWh from 1993, supported by the growing interconnection of electricity grids and the competitiveness of France's nuclear fleet. A  local peak was reached in 2002, with an export balance of 76 TWh. The last second-generation nuclear reactor was commissioned in the same year.

During the 2000s, electricity consumption continued to increase. At the same time, generation levelled off from the middle of the decade, partly due to the lack of new nuclear projects coming on stream and the absence of any marked drive to develop the renewable fleet.

From the late 2000s and during the 2010s, the availability of the French nuclear fleet declined as maintenance operations became more intensive due to the ageing of the plants and the launch of the “Grand carénage” refurbishment programme. The Fessenheim power station shut down permanently in 2020. In parallel, renewable energy, and particularly wind and solar power, expanded in France and Europe. France's trade balance remained positive, even though the proportion of generation destined for export no longer reached the unusually high levels seen in the early 2000s.

After a marked decrease during the energy crisis in 2022 (when France became an importer), the country's balance broke its 2002 export record (76 TWh) two years in a row in 2024 and 2025, with 89 TWh and then 92 TWh respectively, driven by strong low-carbon generation (thanks partly to the recovery in nuclear availability) and consumption that was lower than in the 2010s.

As a result, the French power system is currently experiencing a situation of national electricity abundance, though this is not unprecedented. In the electricity industry, cycles occur regularly because of the contrast in time scales between the inertia associated with developing generation and network infrastructure, which extends over several years or even decades, on one hand and the occurrence of energy and economic crises or major shifts in consumption, which happen over much shorter periods of time, on the other. This can lead to periods, such as the current one, when the growth dynamic of electricity generation is temporarily out of sync with growth in consumption.

Although the net balance of electricity trading in 2025 was close to that of the previous year, the trends varied slightly from one border to another. 

The balance of exports increased in relation to Great Britain (22.6 TWh, i.e. +2.5 TWh compared with 2024) and Italy (26.2 TWh, i.e. +3.9 TWh compared with 2024), mainly due to better availability of exchange capacity with these two regions. The balance also increased in relation to Switzerland (20.1 TWh, i.e. +3.5 TWh), where a nuclear power station has been shut down for technical reasons since May 2025⁵. However, it fell with Spain (0.2 TWh, or −2.6 TWh), mainly as a result of significant imports from this region at the beginning of the year, when French consumption was at its highest, and with the Core region, i.e. the borders with Germany and Belgium (23.1 TWh, or −4.1 TWh), mainly due to maintenance work on the interconnection lines across these borders in the spring and summer of 2025

Although France is generally a major electricity exporter on a monthly or annual basis, electricity trading between France and its neighbouring countries changes significantly from hour to hour and from day to day, depending on the characteristics of the different generation mixes and the structure of daily consumption in each country. As a result, hourly trade patterns vary according to season and border.

For example, France's trade with Italy and Switzerland is largely export-oriented for most of the day. On summer days, however, there is a noticeable drop in French exports in the early afternoon, reflecting the rise in solar generation in neighbouring countries, which makes their electricity more competitive at these times and reduces their need to import. This phenomenon is even more visible in trade with Belgium and Germany, which have over 115 GW of solar capacity in total: excluding the late morning and early afternoon, trade amounts to more than 2 GW of exports on average, but this falls sharply from 10 am onwards, even reversing during the summer period, when France becomes an importer. 

Contrary to what one might expect, the opposite phenomenon is observed in summer at the Spanish border. Between midday and 4 pm, although Spanish solar output is high, Spain regularly imports electricity from France, where solar generation is also high. These imports, at a time when Spanish consumption peaks due to the use of air conditioning, are generally re-exported to Portugal and, to a lesser extent, Morocco. France then begins to import from Spain in the late afternoon, when French consumption rises, and then exports again after 8 pm when consumption peaks in the evening in Spain.

In Germany, the evening consumption peak is about an hour before the French peak. This schedule difference is reflected in trade with the Core region: in winter, French exports peak between 4 pm and 6 pm, then gradually decline to a trough around 7 pm to 8 pm, corresponding to the time when French demand peaks. This reduction in exports at the point when French consumption peaks at 7 pm in winter is widespread, and can also be seen in the patterns of trade with other countries.

This illustrates how trade makes it possible to take advantage of differences in renewable energy consumption and generation profiles, even though there is a degree of correlation between French renewable generation profiles and those of neighbouring countries, which can limit outlets on the European market (and therefore the possibilities of exporting
surplus production) and lead to power generation being modulated downwards.

Due to the extensive interconnection of the European grid, France's electricity exchanges with its immediate neighbours, as presented in the border-by-border analysis, may also originate or terminate in countries with which it is not directly interconnected. Schematically, if, over a given period of time, France exports electricity to Spain but Spain exports it to Portugal at the same time, then it may be legitimate to consider that, over the period in question, part of the electricity traded between France and Spain is destined for Portugal. Similarly, if France exports electricity to Italy but imports it at the same time from Germany, it may be legitimate to consider part of these exports as coming from Germany and not from French production. The results of the analysing the trade using this approach, known as “flow tracing”, with a European scope extended to 15 countries¹¹, are presented here. This is not measured data but the results of modelling¹², but it can still provide additional information useful for understanding the operation of the European power system.

This analysis shows, firstly, that a large proportion of France’s imports “pass through” the country, and do not supply French consumption. France was a net exporter almost 99% of the time in 2025. In practice, even if France is a net exporter during a given period, it may simultaneously be importing from another country. A situation in which exports exceed imports (net export position) reflects the fact that these imports do not correspond to a need within France during these periods, but to exchanges of electricity that pass through its network. The volume of imports supplying French consumption, as defined by this approach, is thus extremely low: less than 0.2 TWh over the year.

Analysing the trade across each border, we can see that exports to Switzerland are much lower according to the “flow tracing” analysis than those identified in the bilateral analysis for borders with direct neighbours. This is because Switzerland is a transit country¹³: Switzerland's imports of French electricity for its own consumption represented only 4% of French exports in 2025 (4 TWh), whereas the total Swiss imports (including “re-exported” flows, particularly to Italy) accounted for 19%. As a result, Italian imports of French electricity, which at first glance represented only 25% of French exports, actually accounted for 36% (or 33 TWh) once flows transiting via countries such as Switzerland are included.

Ultimately, 15% of French exports supplied consumption in non-bordering countries in 2025. The largest of these markets is Portugal, with 4% by volume (3 TWh), i.e. more than the French exports supplying Spanish consumption (2 TWh). Finally, around 11% of France's exports are destined for the rest of Europe (including Austria, Poland, Denmark and the Netherlands).

Because of its position as an “electricity crossroads” between its neighbours to the north, south-west and east, France automatically plays the role of a transit country. In 2025, the volume of flows passing through France amounted to 11 TWh; this is similar to the 2024 volume, down on 2022, and is the lowest since 2015. This can be explained by the abundance of low-carbon domestic production, which made France's average and primarily supplied the import needs of its neighbours. In 2022, when French nuclear output was at its lowest level since 1988 and hydropower production was also low, a record 32 TWh passed through France, mainly from Core, Spain and Great Britain to Italy and Switzerland, where spot prices were higher than in France.

Through flows reflect the operation of the interconnected European power system, in which economic optimisation leads to the least costly – and generally least carbon-intensive – generation sources across Europe being called on to feed consumption, independently of national borders, within the limits of interconnection capacities and the transit capacities of the national networks.

Over the last few years, through flows have risen from Spain, as a result of its increasingly competitive generation mix, but decreased from Germany and Belgium, whose trade balances have recently switched from exports to imports – see the previous section. Of the 11 TWh that passed through France in 2025, 7 TWh came from Spain and 3 TWh from the Core region. Historically, these through flows were mainly destined for Italy and Switzerland¹⁴, though the distribution was more balanced in 2024 and 2025.

For example, the increase in exchange capacity with Spain over the coming years should lead to an increase in transits to the rest of Europe, which will generate more cross-border flows on the French network. For these interconnections to be exploited to the full, the internal network routes that will enable these transits to other countries also need to be identified and strengthened.

The total net value of France's electricity exports amounted to €5.4 billion in 2025 (or around €9 billion taking into account the average price in the countries to which France exports), a level slightly higher than the previous year. This amount helps to reduce France's “energy bill”, but it is still low compared with the cost of fossil fuel imports, which represent the largest heading in France's trade deficit. In 2025, fossil fuel imports cost €53 billion¹⁵. In 2022, they amounted to over €₂₀₂₅110 billion in the context of the energy crisis; by comparison, the fact that France was, unusually, an electricity importer that year only cost around €₂₀₂₅8 billion.

As the findings of the latest 2025 Generation Adequacy Report published by RTE also make clear, this provides a valuable opportunity to take advantage of the abundance of low-cost, low-carbon electricity generation to decarbonise the French economy by replacing fossil fuels, which still account for almost 60% of the energy consumed in France. Electrifying energy uses would enable French consumers to benefit from low-cost electricity generation, strengthen the country's energy sovereignty and shield it from the volatility of fossil fuels prices resulting from events affecting the global economy.

As a result of increased price volatility, volumes traded at relatively high prices increased (23% of volumes were exported at prices above €₂₀₂₅90/MWh, compared with 20% in 2024 and less than 1% over the 2012–2020 average). Volumes traded at relatively low prices also increased slightly (13% of the volumes exported were at prices below €₂₀₂₅10/MWh, compared with 12% in 2024 and 1% over the 2012– 2020 average).

Historically, since the markets were opened up in 2002, the average spot price when France was a net exporter¹⁶ has been lower than the price when France was a net importer. This is because most of the periods when France imported electricity corresponded to periods of high consumption, when prices also tend to be higher. This situation was reversed in 2024 and even more so in 2025: thanks to the abundance of low-carbon generation in France, there were only rare periods when France was a net importer (around 100 hours in 2025). During these times, France was mainly importing due to the abundance of renewable generation in neighbouring countries, which meant that half of these hours were characterised by negative prices. The average import price¹⁷ was €33/MWh, the lowest level since the markets opened.

The average price per MWh exported in 2025 

(€59/MWh at the French price) is close to the average French spot price (€61/MWh). It remains close to the levels of the previous year and slightly higher than during the 2010s. Valued at the average price in the countries to which France exports, on the other hand, it came to €101.5/MWh. So, as in 2024, France did not “dump” its electricity at rock-bottom prices in 2025: it exported its competitive surplus production almost continuously, benefiting from a higher price differential with neighbouring countries than in 2024.