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It is a paradox which costs almost a billion euros to the taxpayer. While the State has engaged in an ambitious energy sobriety policy, its invoice has literally exploded, reveals the Court of Auditors in an unprecedented and overwhelming report, published on July 22, 2025. Between 2018 and 2023, the energy expenditure of ministries jumped by 63 %, going from 1.36 billion to a peak of 2.23 billion euros. A colossal budget skid which erases the benefits of the efforts requested from agents and which, according to the Court, is accompanied by such a defaulting follow -up that it calls into question the very capacity of the State to achieve its climatic objectives.
+63% in 5 years: an invoice out of control
For the first time, the sages of rue Cambon dissected the global state energy bill, an estimated financial issue at nearly 2 billion euros per year. The result, detailed on 94 pages, is final.
The report precisely this alarming trajectory:
The state energy bill increased from € 1,365 million in 2018 to € 1,694 million in 2024, which is an increase of 24 % compared to 2018, with a peak at € 2,226 million in 2023, any fluids combined, an increase of 63 % compared to the same year 2018.
This cost explosion is mainly due to the surge in energy prices in the world markets, aggravated in France by the difficulties of the nuclear fleet.
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Less consume, but pay much more: the great paradox of sobriety
On paper, public administrations seem to have played the game. The data communicated indicate a downward trend in volume consumption. For buildings alone, consumption would have dropped by 14 % between 2018 and 2023with significant drops for gas (-24%) and fuel oil (-32%).
But this effort was completely destroyed by Price increase. By analyzing the cost of energy for buildings of the main ministries, the Court shows that the average price at the MWh has been multiplied by 2.4 over the periodgoing from € 107 in 2018 to € 241 in 2023. Sobriety therefore served only to amortize part of an inevitable budget shock, and not to save money.
In detail of the invoice: electricity, the main engine of inflation
Not all energies have weighed in the same way in the scale. An analysis of the state invoice, taken from the report tables, shows very contrasting developments between 2018 and 2024:
- Electricity: +78 % (from € 388 million to € 692 million)
- Gaz : +47 % (from € 151 million to € 222 million)
- Urban heating (heat networks): +46 % (from € 50 million to € 73 million)
- Fuels: -8 % (from € 704 million to € 646 million)
- Fioul: -41 % (from € 49 million to € 29 million)
It is therefore the surge in electricity prices which is the main responsible for the cost drift. A situation all the more critical as the state decarbonation strategy is partly based on an increased appeal to electricity, replacing fossil fuels such as gas or fuel oil.
The bankruptcy of a supplier, electroshock for a too fragile purchasing strategy
The report also puts its finger on the fragility of the state purchasing strategy, especially with The bankruptcy of the hydropion electricity supplier In December 2021. This supplier, who had won several public contracts, had not sufficiently secured his own energy purchases. Faced with the outbreak of the courses, he could not honor his contracts at fixed prices.
This failure, described as “emblematic” by the Court, forced the State to review its doctrine of purchase in an emergency.
This situation has led to defining a new approach to the methods of acquiring the various fluids (fuels, electricity, gas and fuel oil) and controlling their consumption, excluding operational constraints (armed forces, security forces and customs which benefit from derogations), favoring resilience and control of risks compared to the only criterion of the price.
A late paradigm change that did not prevent the bill from flying away.
Beyond the invoice: such a defaulting follow-up that he calls everything in question
But the problem is even deeper, and perhaps more serious. Because beyond the financial shock, the report points to a major structural failure: The state does not really know what it consumes. Monitoring tools are so unreliable that the figures themselves are called into question.
The examples of this “statistical cacophony” abound. There is in particular inconsistencies between data from ministries and those of central buyers.
| Ministries | DAE Car 2023 data in mWh | Data from ministries in 2023 in MWh | Gap | Gap in % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justice | 439.990 | 468.182 | -28.192 | -6 % |
| Economy and finance | 219.270 | 132.000 | +87.270 | +66 % |
| Foreign Affairs (France) | 2.500 | 1.810 | +690 | +38 % |
| Armies | 568.750 | 495.574 | +73.176 | +15 % |
| National education | 39.260 | 37.653 | +1.607 | +4 % |
| Interior | 836.240 | 605.200 | +231.040 | +38 % |
| Total | 2.106.010 | 1.732.436 | +373.574 | +22 % |
Source: Court of accounts from data from the State Purchasing Directorate and Ministries.
Clearly, not only does the state pay a fortune, but He pilots his “blind” decarbonization trajectory. This uncertainty about basic data throws a serious doubt about its ability to achieve its ambitious objectives, including the reduction of 22 % of its emissions by 2027.
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