Announced power cuts: will you have to deduct the hours yourself?

The message is concise, but inciting. Faced with possible cuts this winter, he begins like this: “We are told of power cuts, OK”. Before giving advice to users: “But remember to check the number of hours of cut-off per month and deduct it from your subscription. Keep it running!”.

It has been shared tens of thousands of times and has been spreading like a wind of revolt on social networks since December 7. Another similar post published on December 2 has been shared 53,000 times.

But the proposal actually seems surprising, because when a citizen is cut off, by definition he cannot use electricity. This was confirmed by the Consumer Institute at 20 Minutes: there will already be savings on the bill. EDF also points out that “by definition, unused electricity is not billed” As for the subscription, it constitutes “a fixed part of the bill”.

Still, can we consider a discount? EDF does not open the way to this possibility: “EDF does not plan to deduct an amount from subscribers’ bills. Indeed, the supplier is not responsible for transporting the energy to its customer. , this mission being the responsibility of the network managers”, explained the supplier to 20 Minutes. “Therefore, the supplier is not responsible for the consequences linked to a cut on the network which falls within the network manager/customer relationship”.

In addition, in the event of electricity overconsumption, the country should not be plunged into darkness, but only targeted geographical areas of 2000 customers, as indicated on the government site. The cut-off hours will also be limited: from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. during peak periods.

As for the French connected to a priority line, near a hospital, a gendarmerie or a police station, they will not be affected. For his part, the CEO of EDF was confident “for the coming weeks, with the passage of winter”, the French having consumed 10% less electricity in November compared to the year 2021 .

To qualify the level of consumption of the French, the Ecowatt system has been set up. Like a weather forecast, three signals will be emitted daily and hourly throughout the winter on a dedicated site. In the event of a green signal, there will be no alert, with the orange signal the system becomes tense and saving gestures are welcome.

In the event of a red signal, danger, it is essential to reduce its consumption by saving gestures under penalty of cuts. An example of a concrete effort is to lower your indoor temperature by 1°C. If all French households did this, it would save 1.3 gigawatts (GW) during the morning peak, equivalent to the consumption of a city like Marseille.