They now seem inevitable. According to RTE, the electricity distribution network, power cuts are very seriously considered in January, to allow the country to “get through the winter” in the face of the critical situation of the electricity network in France.

“The situation could get complicated in January, in particular if the temperatures drop and the nuclear power plants do not reinject enough energy into the network”, specified Bastien Toulemonde, regional director of Enedis Midi-Pyrénées Sud, to the daily La Hurry.

As a reminder, these cuts, lasting two hours, will occur at “peak hours” in terms of electrical activity: between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. in the morning, and 6 and 8 p.m. in the evening.

They will take place at the scale of a district, for urban areas, or of several villages, for rural areas.

The key principle of these “rotating load shedding”? “Once an area has been cut off and then resupplied, another is cut off in turn for two hours”, advances Bastien Toulemonde, arguing that, in this sense, “every French person is likely to be cut off”… Even the most fragile. According to the regional director, “we may have to cut the power of people who are highly dependent on medical devices that run on electricity”.

According to these arrangements, could it be that some households are unloaded… several times a day? Bastien Toulemonde does not exclude it.

In addition, the French will receive an alert, three days before any cuts, via the EcoWatt device. The information will also be broadcast in the weather reports of your television news.