According to electricity transport network forecasts (RTE), energy savings and the Ecowatt alert system must avoid load shedding. In the current context, the system is placed under “reinforced vigilance”, an unprecedented level.
by and
Will France lack electricity this winter? The manager of the electricity transport network RTE delivered, Wednesday, September 14, forecasts particularly expected for the period from October 15 to April 15, 2023, the risk on supply security appearing in the fall. In an unprecedented context marked by a panic of energy prices, tensions on the supply of gas related to war in Ukraine, and record unavailability of the nuclear park, the president of the board of RTE, Xavier Piechaczyk, place the System under “Reinforced vigilance” – a level never used so far – and does not exclude the use of temporary electricity cuts, called “load shedding”, in certain individuals or businesses.
He ensures, however, that the implementation of sobriety measures and a “general mobilization” in the event of particularly strong tension on the network should make it possible to avoid getting there. To assess the risk of cutting, RTE highlights an indicator: the number of days when a “red Ecowatt alert” could be sent. “A red Ecowatt signal, specifies Xavier Piechaczyk, it is RTE who says: in three days, we will organize cuts, unless companies, communities and households respond and make gestures at the right time. So not automatic load shedding. “
According to RTE analyzes, the number of alerts should be, in the vast majority of the scenarios studied, between zero and five. “It’s not nothing, but it is not very important over a period of six months,” insists Mr. Piuschaczyk. To achieve these conclusions, RTE evaluated the main factors of uncertainty weighing on the electrical supply. The first relates to the availability of the nuclear fleet, whose production has been low in thirty years. Monday, September 12, twenty-eight of the fifty-six reactors were stopped, the vast majority for maintenance and control operations of corrosion problems (cracks on reactor pipes).
cents meteorological chronicles
Officially, EDF has planned to relaunch all of the units when you stop by mid-February 2023. In its most optimistic option, in which there is no big hazards or drift of Planning, RTE estimates that 40 gigawatts (GW) could be available at 1 er December and 50 GW at 1 er January, on a total production capacity of 61.5 GW . “This corresponds to the maximum technical maximum still accessible, specifies Xavier Piechaczyk. It is still possible to arrive at this level of availability but there must be no hazards from today.” In the scenario Central, on the other hand, which takes into account the probabilities so that each reactor is put in service later than expected, availability would be much lower, at 38 GW in early December and 45 GW in early January.
You have 61.18% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.