Maud Descamps, edited by Gauthier Delomez 8:06 am, December 23, 2021
France could soon run out of electricity.
The electrician EDF had to close several reactors "as a precautionary measure" after the detection of certain faults.
If everything should nevertheless go well for the end of the year holidays, there remains a real uncertainty for the winter period.
Will the French have to celebrate Christmas by candlelight?
The question of the lack of electricity for the holidays arises because France might not have enough to spend the winter.
The electrician EDF has indeed had to close several nuclear reactors to carry out maintenance operations.
But if electricity production is significantly reduced, it should still be sufficient for the end of the year celebrations.
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15 nuclear reactors out of 56
It remains all the same a hard blow for the winter period. In fact, nuclear power has never been so scarce. Of the 56 reactors available to France, 15 are currently shut down. "It has never been so tense. We should spend Christmas without difficulty. January, on the other hand, it will be necessary to see", entrusts an executive of the sector to Europe 1.
Everything will depend on the weather.
If a cold snap hits France, RTE, the operator of the electricity network, could resort to emergency measures to avoid the blackout.
The first would be to disconnect 16 French industrial sites which have signed a contract to this effect with RTE.
The other solution would be to ask the French to adopt eco-friendly measures, for example, to lower the heating or to delay the use of certain electrical devices to limit our consumption of electricity.
Cuts mentioned after January
But if all this were not enough, the network manager could also carry out two-hour power cuts, on a rotating basis throughout France.
An update on the situation must be made next week, in particular on the weather forecast, to determine whether or not to activate one of these levers.