Although spring is imminent on this first day of March, energy sobriety is not weakening in France. According to weekly figures from GRTgaz, gas consumption at scale between August 1, 2018 and February 26, 2019 was 50 TWh lower than between August 1, 2018 and February 26, 2019, a decrease of 15 .7% in gross consumption. Corrected for climatic variations, that is, with temperatures in line with those normally observed in the period, this fall is around 12.7%. In detail, only 12.5 TWh were consumed between February 20 and 26.
Power plant consumption continues to rise
As is the case with electricity, this reduction in gas consumption is driven by large manufacturers directly connected to the gas transmission network, but also by the residential and tertiary sectors and industrial players connected to public distribution networks. For large industrial consumers, the fall between the two seven-month periods separated by four years amounts to 23.5%, either corrected for weather effects or considered crudely. For other consumers, the drop is more contained but still significant, at 17.7% on raw data and nearly 13% weather-corrected.
Not surprisingly, it is the consumption of gas linked to centralized electricity production that is slowing down the fall in national consumption to compensate for the stoppage of nuclear reactors. Between the periods 2018-2019 and 2022-2023, power plants that run on natural gas have seen their consumption increase by 20.3%, although they continue to be the least significant item with only 36.4 TWh of the 268 TWh consumed in France between on August 1, 2022 and February 26, 2023. Without taking this centralized electricity production into account, the drop in French gas consumption would be close to 20% in raw data (-16.1% with climate correction) between 2022 and 2018.
Source: BFM TV
