No, the government does not plan to cut the power without compensation

• Many Twitter accounts have been picking up, for several days, a rumor that the government is preparing a decree authorizing power cuts to individuals without payment of compensation in the event of a power shortage.

• This information, released by Mediapart on July 8, is denied by the Ministry of Energy Transition for which such a decree is not “on the agenda”.

• Enedis assures that if exceptional cuts took place, the allowances would, for the moment, be applied.

"It's going to be all dark!"

In recent days, many Internet users have feared untimely power cuts in their homes.

The cause ?

According to publications that are multiplying on social networks, the Borne government is preparing a decree authorizing it to lower, or even stop, the electricity supply to private homes in the event of a power shortage, without financial compensation or allowances.

Most of these messages react to a tweet of July 18 from the account "La Plume Libre" which takes up information from traditional media.

The account also cites

as a source.

Energy, the center of debate for several weeks because of the war in Ukraine, is a sensitive subject.

Theories have developed around this rumour, going so far as to link this decree to the installation of Linky meters, which would allow the power to be cut off in any dwelling remotely and without its occupants being able to remedy it... Decree, compensation, Linky…

takes stock.

FAKE OFF

If no link is available in the tweet from “La Plume Libre”, a few clicks are enough to trace its source to our colleagues at

.

In an article dated July 8, 2022, the author analyzes the situation of the EDF group and details the origin of the setbacks of the energy group.

The article ends with a worrying prediction, shortages and rationing would be expected, leading to arbitrary cuts that could affect the entire territory as of next winter: “The government, moreover, is preparing for it.

According to our information, a decree is being drafted to allow power cuts and load shedding measures for individuals, without these giving rise to compensation, unlike what is done for businesses.

»

The Ministry of Ecological Transition denies for the moment

Questioned by

, the cabinet of Agnès Pannier-Runacher formally denies this information, arguing that such a decree is not on the “order of the day”.

Same story on the side of Matignon.

To the question of whether it could be topical soon, we did not have a concrete answer.

It is therefore difficult to say with certainty whether or not there will be such a decree.

Enedis, the EDF subsidiary in charge of the distribution of electrical energy, has not heard of this decree either.

A spokesperson for the company confirms, however, that in the event of an energy shortage, there is a procedure of last resort for load shedding, that is to say “exceptional and controlled cuts”.

These power cuts may entitle you to compensation, as confirmed by Enedis on its website.

But for that, the supply stoppage must last longer than five hours.

In this case, "you benefit from the payment of a lump sum of €2 excluding VAT per kVA of power subscribed for each 5 consecutive hours of power outage (within the limit of 40 consecutive 5-hour periods)".

This sum is then automatically paid by Enedis to the electricity suppliers who must report it on the electricity bills of individuals.

Remote cuts do not depend on Linky

In addition, if this outage were to damage one of your appliances, it is possible to request additional compensation from Enedis via the energy supplier.

Indeed, according to article 1245 of the Civil Code, “the producer is liable for damage caused by a defect in his product, whether or not he is bound by a contract with the victim”.

Here too, a decree could jeopardize this compensation.

On the other hand, the owners of Linky meters (35 million devices in France) can be reassured: they would not be more targeted by cuts than the others.

Linky meters offer the possibility of facilitating certain operations remotely, such as a reduction in power or a power cut, as can be seen on the website of the National Energy Ombudsman.

But Enedis assures that if exceptional cuts were made because of a shortage, they would be organized at the scale of a territory "directly on the electricity network and not according to the equipment in meters".

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• Economy

• fake-off

• electricity

• energy

• EDF

• Enedis

• Agnes Pannier-Runacher

• War in Ukraine