Consumption decreased by 7.4 % last week compared to the average of previous years (2014-2019).
MO12345lemonde with AFP
The RTE network manager reported Tuesday, December 27, a decline of 7.4 % recorded last week compared to the average of previous years (2014-2019).
An assessment disseminated after treatment of calendar and meteorological effects: it is therefore the consumption that would have taken place with normal temperatures for the period. A method is thus insulating the structural variations in demand, economic activity and sobriety efforts.
Over the past four weeks, the average structural decline reached 8.7 %. RTE explains the slowdown in the decline (7.4 % the last week against 8.1 % in the previous one) by a decrease in the potential for additional energy savings for individuals and companies in the tertiary sector, the radoucing of temperatures having Decreased the consumption of electricity linked to heating.
From this summer, the government had called on individuals, companies and administrations to reduce their energy consumption as much as possible to rule out any risk of load shedding or cuts this winter. Alerts, concretized by a sobriety plan in October, against the backdrop of supply difficulties aggravated by the war in Ukraine.
20 % drop in public lighting
The high and very high voltage line manager had lowered, on December 20, the risk of tensions for the electrical network in January from “high” to “average”, given the efforts observed and the restart of several nuclear reactors.
Among the overall electricity consumption, that linked to public lighting recorded a “historic” drop of 20 % during the first half of December, between midnight and 4 am, the network manager reported Tuesday ENEDIS electricity distribution. This decrease was recorded at “Night Heart”, compared to the same period in 2021, specifies the ex-ERDF, who underlines “a significant drop, the most important recorded” by his services.
According to Enedis, public lighting is responsible for more than 40 % of the annual electricity consumption of French municipalities, “with 11 million light points throughout the country, a power called 1,300 megawatts “. At the end of November, the government had announced to send the prefects a circular to anticipate and prepare their departments for any programmed power cuts, which could concern 60 % of the population, but no critical or priority client site.