London (Platts)--28Nov2012/551 am EST/1051 GMT

EDF failed to return to full capacity Wednesday morning its 1.3 GW Paluel 4 nuclear power reactor in northern France after an unplanned outage since early Monday, the latest data from grid operator RTE showed.

Output from Paluel 4 was then cut to 80 MW from 05:30 Wednesday (0430 GMT), EDF said in a note, without giving a reason for the limitation.

The 1.3 GW Paluel 2 reactor was yet to return to the grid at 11:00 Wednesday, after the unit also suffered an unplanned stoppage Monday morning. Paluel 2 is expected back Wednesday, but the unit has already seen its start date slip back from initial estimates which had forecast a short unplanned outage due to a fault related to the turbine, feed water plant and condenser section.

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Colder weather is set to drive up French power demand from peaks of 78.3 GW Wednesday to 82.3 GW Friday.

EDF's fleet of 58 nuclear power reactors supply in general around three quarters of the nation's power, and nuclear availability is forecast to be 59.5 GW Thursday and 58.6 GW Friday.

--Robin Sayles, newsdesk@platts.com --Edited by Jonathan Fox, jonathan_fox@platts.com

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