The Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) emphasized again at the weekend that a large-scale power failure in winter is "extremely unlikely".

The authority thus clarified statements by BBK boss Ralph Tiesler.

He had said in the "Welt am Sonntag": "We have to assume that there will be blackouts in winter." He referred this to a "regional and temporary interruption in the power supply".

A BBK spokeswoman explained that Tiesler referred to such a scenario "to emphasize the fundamental importance of precautionary measures".

The authority regretted "the ambiguous wording" of Tiesler.

The electrical power supply system is designed with multiple redundancies and has numerous safety mechanisms to stabilize the power grid in the event of disruptions.

"Likewise, the probability is considered low that there will be regional and temporary forced shutdowns in order to continue to ensure the overall supply."

Won't "Blow Up"

The Federal Network Agency had previously contradicted the statements.

"Germany has one of the world's most reliable power supply systems," said a spokesman.

"There are numerous mechanisms and reserves for stabilizing the power grid in tense situations." The network agency considers forced shutdowns in the coming winter to be unlikely.

In the interview, Tiesler said that the cause of a possible power outage is not just energy shortages, but also the targeted, temporary shutdown of the grids by the operators in order to protect the grids and not endanger the overall supply.

"The risk of this increases from January and February, so we assume that from then on there will be local power interruptions for a period of time."

Tiesler criticized the fact that government agencies are not always adequately prepared for crises such as power failures.

Some of the municipalities and authorities are "really exemplary", with precise plans and ensuring the power supply through emergency generators on site.

"Others are significantly worse."

In France, targeted, rotating power cuts have been under discussion for some time.

In cold temperatures and if consumers do not reduce their consumption despite warnings from the electricity network operator RTE, they threatened in January, the head of the energy regulator CRE, Emmanuelle Wargon, said on French television on Saturday.

There will be "no blackout" and the system will "not blow up," she emphasized, but warned that the warnings should be taken seriously.

As justification, Wargon referred to the limited availability of the French nuclear power plant park.

RTE published a new forecast on Friday, according to which this is likely to be only 40 of the 61.4 gigawatts installed due to the large number of maintenance and repair work at the beginning of January.

Normally it is between 50 and 60 gigawatts during this period.