BERNSTEIN Utilities Daily – July 3rd

Research evidence excerpt

BERNSTEIN Utilities Daily – July 3rd

Jorge Alonso Suils +34 915 893 913 jorge.alonso@bernsteinsg.com 3 July 2026

based approach centred on wholesale market liquidity. The Commission formally launched an in-depth state-aid investigation at the

end of March - a standard procedure for a project of this size - while EDF is targeting a FID by year-end, ahead of the potentially

uncertain French presidential election in spring 2027. France would like EDF to retain the ability to sell part of the output through

bilateral PPAs, rather than exclusively through the planned CfD mechanism, currently envisaged at €97/MWh.

• Heatwave II as France faces new “record”, reactors at risk (Montel). Europe is facing another “record-breaking” heatwave over

the next few days, with France again expected as the “epicentre”, potentially cutting output at the country’s reactors and driving up

power prices in the region, forecasters told Montel this week. “Next week looks like another record-breaking heat event with mid

30sC returning to western Europe,” said William Henneberg, meteorologist at forecaster Commodity Weather Group.

GERMANY

• Germany's coalition aims to speed up distribution grid expansion (CLEW). The parties in Germany’s governing coalition have

agreed to draft a policy package to speed up the expansion of the electricity distribution grid, according to a joint statement.

“Renewable energy sources and storage systems, industrial facilities, data centers, charging infrastructure, heat pumps – they all

need to be connected to the electricity grid,” chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD)

said. “It is therefore crucial to speed up the expansion of the distribution network in particular.” They promised to present a “distribution