How France is preparing to avoid a major blackout this winter

With the onset of winter, the French government is putting in place a plan to deal with the energy crisis. A directive will be sent to regional police chiefs to anticipate scheduled power cuts, which could affect 60 percent of the population in a worst-case scenario.

At the moment, half of the country's reactors are offline due to ongoing or delayed maintenance, or corrosion problems. The new generation of power stations is yet to be built.

As a result, France will be "a major importer of electricity this winter" to compensate, explains Xavier Piechaczyk, chairman of the management board of RTE, which handles the country's electricity transmission network.

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"Historically, France is an exporter because of its very large nuclear fleet, however, now it turns out that it has temporary difficulties ... (which) will be resolved but it will take a few years," he told France Info on Thursday.

He said France would turn to European neighbours to import up to 15 GW, which represents "a useful amount" to cope with a peak in electricity consumption of around 90 GW, and "contributes to being able to avoid cuts".

There is "a risky situation but these cuts should not be considered inevitable", he said.

Energy saving 'paying off'

In the last few weeks, the government has launched a major publicity campaign inciting French citizens and companies to reduce energy consumption and cut down on wasteful practices.

This means reducing heating to 19°C maximum, turning off unused appliances, and for businesses, switching off unnecessary lighting or advertising at night.

On Tuesday, government spokesperson Olivier Véran told the Council of Ministers that the energy saving plan "is already bearing fruit", noting a five percent reduction in energy use overall.

Milder temperatures have contributed, he said, indicating that as winter progressed, the demands on electricity for heating would obviously increase.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who has been holding weekly crisis meetings on the energy issue, said she would be sending a directive to prefects around the country this week to prepare for eventual planned electricity cuts to avoid a major blackout.

One of the key concerns is the question of how to maintain telephone access to emergency numbers, an issue the government admits it has not yet resolved.

In addition, police chiefs will be asked to reinforce patrols in the absence of street lights in public spaces and deal with a contingency plan for public transport, notably electric trains.

"Nothing is excluded, nothing is confirmed. But it's our responsibility, and we are preparing," Véran said, insisting that the government's intention was not to frighten the population.

He added that the implementation of an emergency plan would depend largely on how cold temperatures would be over the winter.

Return to coal

In a worst-case scenario, the risk of cuts would impact 60 percent of the population, but would never affect an entire region or department.

The plan would exclude critical infrastructure such as hospitals, police stations or fire stations.

An online system called Ecowatt has already been set up to inform citizens of future cuts and help them reduce their consumption.

Some 10,000 households have subscribed to the app, which sends out alerts in case of a problem.

In the meantime, the government is also temporarily returning to coal for electricity needs. A coal station in Saint-Avold in the east of France, which had shut down earlier this year, started up again on Monday.

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Electricity consumption in France fell by 6.7 percent last week compared to the average for previous years (2014-2019), a drop "largely concentrated in the industrial sector", according to RTE's latest report on Tuesday.

But it warns that consumption had not shifted in the tertiary sector, which could put pressure on electricity demands in the future.