While energy prices are soaring, EDF is taking a step towards the most precarious households which would not be able to pay their electricity bill. The French energy giant announced on Friday that it would stop asking for electricity to be cut off for these private customers, all year round and not just during the winter break.
Instead, the group will request, from April 1, 2022, a power limitation to 1 kVA, allowing access to essential uses such as operating the refrigerator or recharging electrical appliances, he clarified in a press release. “This measure (…) will apply in all cases, unless there is a physical or technical impossibility of limiting the power of the electrical supply to the home,” he added.
Power cuts unacceptable for the National Energy Mediator
This announcement comes two days after the National Energy Mediator took a stand for a minimum right of access to electricity for the most precarious households. “Without electricity, no light, no heating, no access to the Internet, nor to the telephone. It is not acceptable, in a country like France, that households can find themselves in such a situation of precariousness and poverty, ”argued Olivier Challan Belval.
In France, the government recently announced measures to address the rise in energy prices, which is affecting the whole of Europe: a check for an additional 100 euros for precarious households, a freeze on the increase in the price of gas and a limitation that of the electricity tariff.
In its press release, EDF underlines that, for several years, it has already favored limiting power to demand for power cuts. According to the group, this choice has reduced the number of cuts by a third in five years.