“We are a big country”, launched the Head of State, ensuring that the French energy model would hold this winter “despite the war”.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
Faced with rising concern linked to the risk of potential “load shedding”, Emmanuel Macron hits the fist on the table. The president criticized, Tuesday, December 6, “the scenarios of fear” linked to the risk of power cuts this winter, ensuring that France was going to “hold” if everyone did “their work”.
“Stop all this! We are a big country, we have a large energy model, we are going to hold this winter despite the war. And I ask everyone to do their job,” said the president when I arrived at a European summit in Tirana, Albania. “The work of EDF is to run the power plants; the work of the government is that there is planning; the work of everyone is that we unfold sobriety”, he added, judging “stupid” the “debate” he had “heard in recent hours”.
The government, which says to anticipate “all scenarios” to a “forecast” measure, sent a circular to the prefects at the end of November so that they can prepare their department in the event of cuts. These random load shedding, of a maximum of two hours, which could concern 60 % of the population and would arise at the time of consumption peaks, are still only a “fictitious scenario”, insists the head of state. “It is normal for the government to prepare an extreme case,” said Macron.
In the event of a very tense situation of the electrical system this winter, especially in January, the “electricity weather”, Ecowatt, managed by electricity transport network (RTE) will issue a signal three days in advance Red to alert the risk of targeted and temporary cuts, so that everyone implements measures to avoid them.
If consumption does not drop after the emission of the red signal, two -hour rotating cuts organized on portions of departments would be “inevitable”, according to RTE.