Squaring the circle. Following RTE’s announcements regarding the risks of tensions in the electrical grid at the beginning of 2023 that could lead to cuts, the executive tries to reassure while preparing conscience. Even if that means showing doubts about the communication to adopt.
“We are entering a very unknown area next January,” Damien Adam (Renaissance) MP sums up broadly with BFMTV.com.
“A Dark Stage”
“We try to be pedagogical in the face of a dark scenario and we say that we are going to get there,” a member of the Sustainable Development Commission of the National Assembly also advances.
In the event of a very high demand on the network, some departments could experience power cuts in the periods of greatest consumption, in the morning between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. and at night between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. The implementation of this device, which is called “shedding”, follows the announcements of the administrator of the French electricity grid, RTE.
The situation would be unprecedented since World War II, which would explain why the government is walking on eggshells.
Words in “conditional”
“It may be this year, and I see the use of the conditional, that electricity production and demand are not completely aligned on certain very cold days,” the government spokesman said on Tuesday.
Before rushing to add that the Government “will maintain the means to avoid cuts every time.” Rebelote this Thursday morning on BFMTV.
“In the situation where we have a particularly cold winter, therefore particularly expensive in energy (…), there could be situations of tension on the power line”, launched Olivier Véran.
While specifying “not to be announcing to the French that there will be cuts” and that the country was not “in a disaster movie”.
“Very complicated” in case of cold snap
Proof of discomfort: the relative discretion in recent days of the two ministers at the forefront of this file, Christophe Béchu and Agnès Pannier-Runacher, taken by discussions with the opposition on the renewable energy bill.
To explain this rhetoric that seems to alternate between hot and cold, a ministerial adviser who works on the subject proposes two explanations, starting with that of time.
“On ne sait pas encore qu’elles seront les températures en janvier. Si elles sont douces ou dans les normales de saison, devrait tout à fait tenir le coup. Sinon, ça risque d’être très très très très complicé”, translated- The.
Load shedding, “an operation that scares everyone a bit”
Second uncertainty that explains the government’s pas de deux: the EDF calendar. If the ten reactors stopped due to welding problems return to work in December as planned, the executive wants to believe that the electrical network will hold. While, therefore, he foresees that this is not the case, as several specialists in the electrical network believe.
“The detachment is an operation that we have never practiced in France and that scares everyone a bit. Hence this speech that says ‘anticipate’ without falling into catastrophism”, deciphers Jean-Marc Zulesi, president of the Commission for Sustainable Development of the National Assembly.
To avoid setbacks, the regional health agencies will send the electricity distribution managers a list of patients at high vital risk in their territory.
“We will be directly responsible”
Among these, we find in particular the case of people who depend on electrical devices to live, such as patients with ventilators. Another big thorn in the government’s side: all emergency services will be unreachable during a power cut, with the exception of 112 which “should be less disturbed”, according to a note from Elisabeth Borne to the prefects revealed by Europa 1.
“It is certain that if something goes wrong, we will be directly responsible”, we sigh again in the entourage of a minister.
Enough to push the government into a maximalist approach while wanting to avoid panic.
Source: BFM TV
