OREANDA-NEWS   The price of electricity in France closed in on €650 per megawatt-hour on Tuesday, jumping 5.5%, Nord Pool exchange data shows.

The day-ahead price surged to €645.54 per megawatt-hour at 12:46 GMT against €611.85 the day before, when it was also on the rise. 

This means the price of electricity in the country has by far exceeded the average cost across the EU, which is around €600 per megawatt-hour. That being said, prices in Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands also grew on Tuesday.

Energy prices have been surging across the EU as gas supplies from Russia have dwindled, and many European countries rely on natural gas to produce electricity. While France is not as reliant as Germany on Russian gas, generating around three-quarters of its electricity from nuclear power plants, the government still fears it may introduce mandatory reductions in power use during the heating season. 

“The main players, government agencies and businesses, must reduce their consumption of gas as well as electricity, because the two systems are linked,” French Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher told CNews television earlier this month.