(Bloomberg) -- The cost of French power jumped to a fresh record as its nuclear fleet faces further outages going into what’s set to be a very expensive winter.

Futures soared 15% to 900 euros per megawatt-hour -- more than 10 times the price at this time last year. 

The surge is being driven by Electricite de France SA’s announcement that more of its reactors will take longer to come back online after halts. The outages affect plants with a combined capacity of 8,380 megawatts -- almost 14% of France’s total nuclear capacity.

Europe is in the grip of an energy crisis amid tighter hydropower supplies and natural gas cuts from Russia, which are pushing up the price of the fuel used in the continent’s power stations. Supplies are set to drop further from Aug. 31, when Russia’s Gazprom PJSC plans to shut the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany for three days of maintenance, triggering fears that shipments may not resume.

In France, six reactor outages have been extended since Wednesday afternoon, as well as a new one announced at the Paluel 4 reactor for four days. Some of the shutdowns are just for a few days, while others have been extended by as many as two months.

Embattled state-run Electricite de France SA is facing full nationalization as part of the government’s plans to get the country’s power system back on its feet. France normally exports power to its neighbors like the UK and Germany for most of the year, but the reverse is expected in 2022, and it may need to import electricity during long periods this winter -- if its neighbors have the capacity to provide it.

Power for France’s winter is also getting particularly expensive. Baseload power for November gained 9.2% to 1,660 euros, with peak-load energy-- for periods of high demand -- trading at 2,881 euros.

Pressure is mounting on European leaders to ease the pain facing their citizens. On Friday, the UK regulator is set to announce an increase in household bills to a level about three times last winter’s, further stretching consumer budgets and raising the prospect of a recession.

In Germany, Europe’s largest market, power prices for next year soared as much as 23% to an all-time high of 792 euros a megawatt-hour. 

Day-ahead prices also rose to records across Europe, including in Germany, France and the UK. The highest was in Italy, where electricity for Friday jumped 17% to a record 718.71 euros per megawatt hour, according to data from Gestore dei Mercati Energetici SpA.

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