EDF / 2018 Reference document

PRESENTATION OF EDF GROUP Description of the Group's activities

Average generation capability over 50 years

Facility category

Turbine capacity

Run-of-river Lake-supplied

3.6GW 8.1GW 3.1GW 5.0GW 240MW

16.8TWh 14.2TWh 8.2TWh 1.5TWh 0.5TWh

1.

Pondage

Pumped-storage

Tidal

Hydropower safety 1.4.1.5.1.2 Hydropower safety comprises all the measures taken when designing and operating hydropower plants to reduce risks and hazards to people and property associated with water and the presence or operation of facilities. Hydropower safety is a constant concern of the highest priority for plant operators (see section 2.2.2.4.2 “The hydropower field”). It involves three main activities: the management of operational risks, by providing information to users ■ (communication campaigns, information of the employees operating on waterways, hiring “hydro-guides” during the summer months) about changes to water levels or flow fluctuations in downstream waterways; the management of facilities during periods of exceptionally high water levels, in ■ order to ensure safety at the facilities and for the surrounding communities; measures to address the major risk associated with dam or reservoir failures, ■ through the regular monitoring and maintenance of facilities under the supervision of public authorities. Among the largest dams, 68 are subject to a specific administrative procedure ("Special Intervention Plan") implemented by the relevant prefectoral authority. EDF performs regular monitoring and maintenance of dams, in particular by means of continuous structural health monitoring. Furthermore, for each of the 236 class A and B dams (according to the French regulations resulting from Decree 2015-526), a danger study is conducted every ten or fifteen years (for one class A dam and one class B dam respectively). These studies consolidate a satisfactory overview of the structures and associated countermeasures (1) , and include a complete assessment made using underwater equipment or by emptying the reservoir. These operations are carried out under the strict supervision of public authorities. In 2018, the hydropower safety of EDF’s fleet remained satisfactory with one hydropower significant safety incident (EISH) within the scope of EDF Hydro (2) classified as “orange” (an incident that placed people in danger or significants damages within the meaning of the Decree dated 21 May 2010; in 2018, the situation classified as “orange” is a “significant damage to a dam” and not an “incident that placed people in danger”). 8 EISH classified as “yellow” (incidents reflecting non-compliance without putting anyone in danger) were recorded this year. The key indicators are still at good levels: the number of sites downstream of facilities with high sensitivity to risks related ■ to variations in water flow fell from 114 in 2005 to 6 in 2017 and 3 in 2018; the management of hydropower facilities was properly handled during the floods ■ that occurred this year. Since 2006, the engineering programmes for the safety and performance components of the hydropower fleet in operation have continued with a high level of investment, ensuring the careful management of major safety-related activities and providing them with national visibility. The goal is the technical updating and improved maintenance of the facilities, in order to maintain a high level of hydropower safety and preserve the technical performance of the fleet over the long-term. At the end of 2018, 440 specific systems and measures (i.e. a temporary measure to prepare an acceptable level of security, performance and individual safety) were being carried out, down from 2017, and were being monitored in five priority facility groups, namely galleries, pipes, dams, penstocks and floodgates.

Performance of the hydropower generation 1.4.1.5.1.3 fleet In 2018, EDF invested €370 million in mainland France for the development and maintenance of its hydropower generation fleet to ensure optimum and safe operation. A highly-automated and remotely-managed fleet In order to take advantage of the flexibility of its hydropower generation facilities, for some years now EDF has been initiating ambitious programmes involving automation, remote control of hydropower plants and centralised management for each valley. Currently, the largest plants in EDF’s hydropower fleet, representing over 15GW (around 75% of its installed hydropower capacity) are remote-controlled from four control centres able to make adjustments to the plants’ operating programmes at any time in order to respond to the needs of the electrical system and to economic opportunities arising on the electricity market. In order to improve their reliability EDF connected the largest power plants to five regional operating centres in charge of overseeing the physical settings of machines, such as temperature and vibration, allowing any deviations to be detected as early as possible and thus avoid incidents. Technical performance of the fleet and hydropower conditions in 2018 Hydropower generation may witness substantial variations from one year to the next, depending on climatic fluctuations in water resources. 2018 is marked by an excellent performance in generation following the materialisation of projects on transformation, result-based management, outage optimisation based on needs and market prices (jointly managed with DOAAT) and abundant generation due to the large surplus of hydrologic conditions in the first half of the year and a slight deficit in the second. EDF has developed a dynamic management of its reservoirs, with its weather programming department, which led, as for example in 2018, to the gradual preventive emptying of some of its lakes when snow melts in order to maximise generation over time. Hydropower electricity generation before the deduction of the power needed to operate pumped-storage plants was 46.5TWh in mainland France and 39.2TWh net of consumption by pumped storage. The 2018 generation indicators show a highly satisfactory level of performance with a low rate of internal loss (3) of 4.5% (3.5% in 2017). The overall availability of the hydropower fleet, i.e. the percentage of time over the year during which the power plants are available at full capacity, was 99.20% in 2018 compared with 99.31% in 2017. The loss rate was 3.1% in 2018. In order to attain the operational performance and competitiveness of its hydropower fleet, EDF has invested, upon completion, close to € 2010 800 million in the last ten years, to develop the industrial performance of its hydropower fleet, by modernising the maintenance and operation of the hydropower fleet, specifically via the renovation of electrical facilities, instrumentation & control and computerised management, maintenance and operating tools. This is the basis on which EDF is pursuing its work to streamline and modernise its assets.

For further details, see the annual report of the Inspector of Hydropower Safety, available on EDF's website. (1) Excluding statements made on facilities operated by the affiliate SHEMA. (2) Internal loss is the energy from flows that do not pass through turbines which were not stored. The rate of internal loss is obtained by dividing the internal loss by the generation (3) performed during the year, and then adding the internal loss.

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EDF I Reference Document 2018