It’s time for energy sobriety. As winter is on its way, energy players fear tensions on the French electricity network. To cope, many measures have been deployed and, as a last resort, localized and scheduled power cuts of a maximum of two hours will be operated.

These “load shedding” are at the heart of many concerns in France, and raise questions. How to contact the emergency services if the networks are cut? How to drive on a road without a red light? What about the elevators, electric gates and digicodes that govern our entrances and our exits?

If many gray areas remain, this is not the case with the operation of banks in the event of a power cut. According to our colleagues from Europe 1, banking establishments are among the best prepared for load shedding… Because if all banking activities today depend on electricity, the law requires these infrastructures to ensure continuity of services in case of a crisis situation.

Charles Cuvelliez, director of IT systems security at the Belgian bank Belfius, explains that the generators that supply the data centers “are guaranteed to operate beyond the two hours of scheduled load shedding (…) I have the figure at the top of 96 hours which is a recognized standard”. Between generators, servers and backup batteries, the banks are ready.

“If ATMs were affected, the French Banking Federation indicates that 48,000 ATMs are present in France. A working ATM should therefore be nearby”, writes Europe 1 for its part.