The risk that the manager of the electricity transport network calls on the population to reduce its electrical consumption in January, under penalty of power cuts, increased.
Le Monde
rte, the manager of the electricity transport network, estimated, Friday, November 18, that there was now a “high” risk of tensions on the French electricity network in January, due to the slower restart that expected from EDF nuclear reactors to stop.
The risk of recourse to the ECOWATT system (and in particular the red alert signal) appears “high in January, but will largely depend on climatic conditions and the possible occurrence of a even moderate cold wave” , according to the monthly updating of “perspectives for the published electrical system” by RTE.
65 % of the capacity in January
In summary, the risk that RTE calls on the population to reduce its electricity consumption in January, under penalty of power cuts, increased, in particular because the maintenance of EDF reactors has lagged behind due to a strike .
Only some 40 gigawatts (GW) from the nuclear fleet should be available in early January, according to RTE forecast, while the forecast made by RTE on September 14 was 45 GW. This corresponds to around 70 % of the nuclear capacity installed. EDF, for its part, provided last week in its official calendar an availability of 48 GW at 1 er January.