As SCC points out, it's covered by taxpayers

UK electricity price cap 52 p/KWh. £520 / MWh.

French baseload electricity for the Nov22-Jan23 period is now trading >€1,500 per MWh. French peakload for Nov-Dec is close to €3,000 per MWh level. [Source Javier Blas / Bloomberg]. Ouch.

Bills are capped. The French won't pay the full cost of the energy they use through their bills. EDF is nationalised. It's losses are covered by the taxpayer. So as a taxpayer, you pay for some of your electricity through your bill - the 4% rise is here - and some (very much more than 4% and also not included in national inflation calculation) through your taxes.

Redistribution means that if you are rich you pay for some of someone else's bill through your taxes. If you are poor, somebody else pays for some of your electricity through their taxes.

In the UK, I imagine Truss will announce support for the poor to cover their energy costs. Essentially redistribution.

Then, let's look at how well run the French nuclear plants are. 12 nuclear reactors are currently closed due to cracked reactors. A cracked reactor doesn't sound like a minor issue to me. Anyhow, EDF are buying energy from Germany (currently 6GW / 10% of total supply) and from UK (1GW). If there is an energy shortage over winter, will those countries but able to sell France energy?

France / UK energy supply info here: User Posted Link

Posted By: Timmy_Goat, Aug 26, 11:06:37