This requires a last call to mobilization. On this first day of meteorological winter, Xavier Piechaczyk was France Info’s morning guest to talk about the situation of the French electricity grid. French concerns about possible power outages are growing as France prepares to enter the heart of the winter period synonymous with grid stress.
Decrease in industrial consumption
In particular, the president of the Executive Board of RTE once again referred to the contribution of the different concepts to the recently observed 6% drop in consumption.
He also indicated that individuals were beginning to reduce their consumption in accordance with the energy sobriety plan, but that until now these eco-funds had only allowed a very small saving of electrical energy, up to 1%.
“On the other hand, we still do not see a drop in consumption in the tertiary sector, so companies must mobilize, he urged. They can switch to LED lighting, heat less and turn off buildings when they are empty.”
France will import much more than usual
The representative of the electricity transmission network operator insisted on the correlation between the situation of this network and the weather conditions this winter. “If it is hot, we will not have Ecowatt red days. If it is a normal winter, we will have a few and if the winter is very cold, we will have more”, explained Xavier Piechaczyk.
While current nuclear capacity is around 35GW, Xavier Piechaczyk has a target of 40GW early next year and 43GW by the end of January. Therefore, it is likely that imports will be resorted to in particularly large proportions.
In this sense, the President of the Executive Council of RTE justified the expansion of coal-fired power plants which, although they only represent between 1 and 2% of electricity production, will serve as a safety net in the event of a voltage spike. “We are forced to expand this plant because we lack other means of production due to the delay of the EPR but also due to the slowness of renewable energies,” he lamented.
A winter 2023-2024 perhaps not so tense?
The representative of the administrator of the electricity transmission network also spoke about the risks of power cuts and load cuts that could affect several million French people per episode. “When you schedule a plan for rotating and localized and temporary blackouts of two hours, either between 8 and 10 or between 18 and 20, you are not targeting this or that region with greater precision,” he pointed out.
Finally, Xavier Piechaczyk also gave his outlook for the winter of 2023-2024, which raises concerns about the end of European imports of Russian gas but also about the probable recovery of Chinese demand, currently at half mast due to a health policy. drastic. which is causing the economy to slow down. The RTE boss was quite optimistic about the power supply.
“Next winter will be less tense in electricity because EDF will have reconnected the nuclear power plants to the grid by then, predicts Xavier Piechaczyk. It will be less tense than this winter seen from now on.”
Source: BFM TV
