• The coronavirus epidemic has effectively had an impact on electricity consumption in Hauts-de-France.

  • RTE has observed an "unprecedented drop", especially in large industries that does not offset the slight increase in individuals.

  • This translates into savings of nearly 45 billion kilowatt hours.

In 2020, we will have experienced things never seen before with the coronavirus epidemic. Among the consequences of this health crisis, one concerns the consumption of electricity. According to the Electricity Transmission Network (RTE) itself, such a drop in consumption is historic because it is unprecedented. In Hauts-de-France, this represents billions of kilowatt-hours saved.

Shortly before last winter, RTE Hauts-de-France launched an alert on the region's electricity supply, which could have been complicated in the event of too low temperatures.

The energy carrier had warned that short and one-off cuts could occur in the event of too much demand.

This was not the case for several reasons.

"The temperatures were rather mild and the health crisis also helped", recognizes Laurent Cantat-Lampin, regional delegate of RTE.

An unprecedented drop in electricity consumption

Finally, the conclusion is quite logical. “Over the whole of 2020, electricity consumption fell by 3.4%. This is an unprecedented drop since the trend had been at equilibrium for the past ten years, ”explains the RTE representative. It was during the first confinement that the drop was most spectacular with -15% in consumption. “Many large industries that consume a lot of electricity were at a standstill, such as railways and cars,” he continues.

At the same time, some sectors were more greedy than usual.

Manufacturers of paper and cardboard and the tertiary sector, in particular data centers.

Individuals too, who have increased their consumption by 2%.

Here again, it makes sense: confined to their homes, the inhabitants of Hauts-de-France hung out more on the Internet and had their purchases delivered to their homes.

But cumulatively, this is not enough to compensate for the loss on the large industry side.

Hence the saving of nearly 45 Twh, or 45 billion kilowatt-hours.

The equivalent of the annual consumption of more than 9 million households.

Our dossier on Hauts-de-France

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

Thus, one might think that EDF has lowered its electricity production.

This is true nationally and false for the region.

Moreover, in Hauts-de-France, production even increased by 5.4% compared to 2019. "This is explained by a necessary balance between the regions which produce more and those which produce less", ensures Laurent Cantat-Lampin.

Moreover, in this regard, it is still nuclear power that comes first in Hauts-de-France (59%), even if the share of renewable energies is constantly increasing (27%).

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