RTE electricity network manager is preparing for a winter under “Vigilance”

The group advocates more caution for January and February, the most exposed period to cold shots.

Le Monde with AFP

The national manager of the electricity transmission network (RTE) provides for a winter under “special vigilance” in terms of food security, confirming its spring forecasts, has announced, Monday, November 22.

rte at first, until the end of the year, on a “relatively low voltage risk”, but advocates more caution for January and February, the most exposed period to cold shots, explains the group in an analysis note.

Two scheduled updates

However, a new monthly supply security diagnostic device will refine these forecasts and RTE already announces two updates that will “refer”, for the first two months of the year 2022. They are expected “end of December Or early January “Then” end of January, “said Thomas Veyrenc, Strategy and Prospective Director of RTE, at a press conference.

“The more we move away from January-February, the more we start to have uncertainty on a number of parameters that are now very important: the temperature, the wind but also the availability of our production park, and especially the nuclear park, “he justified.

This will allow rte to better understand the supply-demand balance, with a more precise calendar on maintenance-related reactor stops and with more reliable weather forecast on the temperature and on wind conditions, then that renewable energies grow in the energy balance.

The calendar affected by the sanitary crisis

The Covid-19 pandemic has shoved the maintenance schedule of nuclear reactors in the spring of 2020, and the repercussions will be felt “at least” until next spring, estimates RTE. The question is particularly sensitive for France, whose electrical production is 70% nuclear.

“In 2021, we have a maintenance program of the nuclear park which is still quite loaded,” said Veyrenc. At the beginning of the next year, “we must expect the availability of the lower nuclear park than the historical average,” he continued, stating, however, that these elements had been anticipated by RTE.

Electricity consumption in France has, for its part, rectified to almost regain its preliminary levels, remaining slightly lower, compared at the same period of 2019.

/Media reports.