It comes following a recent announcement by French Europe Minister Clement Beaune who threatened to use energy supplies as a way to “put pressure” on Britain to end a fishing dispute. He did not go into detail as to how that would be delivered but warned that countermeasures against the UK may be taken “in the next few days” after claiming that Jersey and Britain are both “dependent” on France. French state-run EDF Energy is one of the largest producers of the UK’s electricity, producing around one-fifth of the nation’s electricity from its nuclear power stations, wind farms, coal and gas power stations.
The company supplies over five million business and residential customers and is the biggest supplier of electricity by volume in Britain.
France has also been supplying electricity to the UK through an undersea cable since the Eighties, and EDF took a leap into the UK energy retail market in 1998 when it bought London Electricity.
Earlier this year, another undersea connection between the two nations went online.
The £700million IFA2 interconnector between Hampshire and Normandy is expected to deliver up to 1.2 percent of Britain’s electricity needs.
It comes after France previously threatened to cut off the power in the island of Jersey over fishing in May.
After French claims that Britain had breached the Brexit agreement French fisherman to keep operating in British waters, Annick Girardin, minister for the sea, warned that France could cut the power supply to the Channel Island after denouncing the agreement.
The tensions in May saw French boats blockade the port of Saint-Helier in Jersey to show their anger about the regulations.
This led to the UK sending two navy patrol ships circling Jersey until the protest died down.
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The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs said in a statement in May: “The UK government is constitutionally responsible for the international relations of the Crown Dependencies.
“As such, we have been working closely with the EU and the government of Jersey on fisheries access provisions following the end of the transition period for licensing.”
Jersey’s External Relations Minister, Ian Gorst, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme in May: “This is not the first threat that the French have made to either Jersey or the United Kingdom since we are into this new deal.
“It would seem disproportionate to cut off electricity for the sake of needing to provide extra details so that we can refine the licences.”