France’s electricity output fell last year to its lowest level since 1992, after several nuclear plants were taken offline for maintenance and hydropower production was hit by drought, network operator RTE said on Thursday, informs AFP, according to Agerpres.

In total, last year France produced 445 Terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, the lowest level since 1992, when the country had nine million fewer inhabitants than now, and 15% less than the total production of electricity from 2021.

In addition, only 62.7% of the electricity produced in France last year came from nuclear plants, compared to 69% in 2021 and more than 70% previously. This is the lowest share of nuclear energy in France’s electricity mix since 1988.

The state group EDF, which operates France’s nuclear power plant park, had to disconnect from the grid about half of its 56 reactors for maintenance work last year. Consequently, last year the electricity production of nuclear power plants in France stood at 279 Terawatt-hours, far from the 430 Terawatt-hours in 2005.

Likewise, last year France could not even count on the electricity produced by hydropower plants, affected by exceptionally high temperatures and drought. Thus, a new record was broken and hydropower production dropped to the lowest level since the 1976 drought, being 20% lower compared to the 2014-2019 average.