France stops exporting electricity to Germany

FRANKFURT (AFX) - June 30

France has stopped exporting electricity to Germany as intensive heat in southern Europe last week led to a tight supply situation as air conditioning usage soared, Financial Times Deutschland said citing Bernhard Fischer, management board member of E.ON AG unit E.ON Energie AG.

"At the moment, there are no electricity deliveries from France," he said.

The newspaper said France's RTE confirmed last night that deliveries to Germany have indeed stopped.

"The reason is the intensive heat in the past weeks in southern Europe," the newspaper cited an RTE spokesman as saying.

Fischer however said despite the stoppage in deliveries, he does not expect Germany would experience a power blackout on a scale that occurred in Italy in the summer of 2003.

He said there is sufficient capacity in German power plants and mothballed gas power plants could be reactivated.

mog/bam

The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.

AFX News and the AFX Financial News logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited

News Provided By