INTERVIEW
For winter 2019-2020, electricity supply "should be assured", based on seasonal temperatures, said Wednesday Transmission Network (RTE) in its forecasts, knowing that the months of January and February 2020 are more favorable from a procurement standpoint than this year. Emmanuel Duteil's guest on Wednesday on Europe 1, François Brottes, president of RTE, explained these forecasts.
"If we compare, we have a nuclear fleet a little more available than it was last winter.So that, that's enough to see with serenity the approaching winter," he said. France also currently benefits from a large hydraulic stock, despite drought episodes.
"We have a lot of water in the dams," says François Brottes. "We were cautious at the time of the drought and then the rain came and it made it possible to fill the dams to the block." The place of hydraulics, according to him, is "very important" in the French electrical system.
"Vigilance" for 2022-23
The security of electricity supply in France must, however, be the subject of "vigilance" in 2022-2023, mainly because of the planned shutdown of coal-fired power plants, however, warned on Wednesday RTE, advocating a stay for that of Cordemais, in Loire-Atlantique. The nuclear fleet is also expected to be less available at this time due to numerous maintenance and security visits. The Fessenheim nuclear power plant in the Upper Rhine is due to close in 2020 while the government has announced that the last four coal plants will be shut down by 2022 for environmental reasons.
This promise by President Emmanuel Macron was echoed in the recent energy and climate law. By 2022, these losses must be offset by the development of new generation resources, with a future gas plant in Landivisiau, Brittany, the development of renewable energies and new interconnections with neighboring countries.
To ensure the energy mix, François Brottes and his teams play the "balancing act". "We have to make sure every second that there are as many electrons going into the network as there are electrons coming in. If that's not the case, the network collapses and we could end up in a difficulty that would put everyone in the dark! "