Are the French media hiding future power cuts? Not really. However, last weekend, the tweet of an elected member of the European Parliament Michael Bloss has installed a doubt on the French Twittersphere. “The French network operator expects up to ten planned power outages in winter. The densest nuclear fleet in the world is becoming a high-risk factor for the EU,” said the elected German environmentalist. The post has since been liked more than 2,000 times.
Because across the Rhine, the French are indeed more and more worried about potential future power cuts. “It’s always good to learn from abroad that up to 10 network cuts are already scheduled by EDF. It’s nice to know that the French population does not have access to information about them, ”laughed a surfer. The problem is that the French media did not have this information either. But then where does it come from? 20 minutes make the point.
FAKE OFF
In the French media, not a trace of this estimate of the ten future power cuts. So we decide to look for the same information in German [pour une fois que l’avoir choisi en LV2 peut servir]. In an article published on December 1titled “the lights go out in France”, the correspondence of the media Die Zeit in France explained that France expected “concretely to have to cut the power six to ten times in certain regions to avoid an even greater blackout”.
“Apart from the war in Ukraine, the neighboring country has a major energy supply problem. About half of the 56 nuclear power plants cannot or only partially produce electricity due to technical faults or long maintenance,” the journalist continues.
In her article, the correspondent explains that she draws these estimates from an interview on December 1 with Xavier Piechaczyk, the chairman of the board of the French electrical network (RTE). on France Info. Faced with the tensions encountered in the French nuclear fleet, the boss of RTE estimated that “a few days of red EcoWatt throughout the winter” were possible.
Six potential alerts
However, a day of EcoWatt red is not equivalent to a day of power cut. As a reminder, this device piloted by RTE works like an energy weather forecast and aims to alert the French, businesses and communities of future tensions on the electricity network. “Up to six EcoWatt red alerts, this means that we will say six times ‘beware of the risk of power cuts if we do not lower our electricity'”, explains RTE to 20 minutes.
These alerts are therefore never programmed in advance. “Today, it is impossible to say with certainty that there will be cuts”, advances RTE. If there is a cut during the winter, the French will be informed the same day. Up to three days before, only the red alert can warn of the risk and encourage households and businesses to lower their consumption.
“The risk of cuts cannot be completely ruled out”
On September 14, these forecasts had already been published in an RTE report, then updated in mid-November. “In the vast majority of situations, RTE only considers a few red EcoWatt signals over the six months of winter. When the electrical system is very strained, the risk of a cut cannot be completely excluded, but it could be avoided by reducing national consumption by 1 to 5% in the majority of cases, and up to 15% in the worst weather situations. more extreme,” says the network.
To calculate these risks, RTE distinguished three different scenarios : intermediate, high and gradient. They mainly depend on nuclear availability, but also on the meteorological situation. Other factors may also come into play: gas supply, the energy situation in neighboring countries, whether or not French nuclear reactors are restarted and of course household demand. “The global vision of September 14 remains valid. In the central scenarios, we are still between one and six EcoWatt red signals this winter,” concludes RTE.