Power cuts this winter: what is the planned organization?

Energy sobriety is essential. Faced with the unprecedented crisis that is going through France, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron last week called on French households to save money for winter.

Because the cold season promises to be tense: 32 of the 56 nuclear reactors in the EDF fleet are now shut down, and gas supplies are being undermined by the war in Ukraine. In this context, “French consumption should drop by 15% at the most tense hours”, so that there are no cuts this winter, announced Xavier Piechaczyk, the chairman of the executive board of RTE (manager of the electrical transmission network) in the columns of Les Echos.

For her part, Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne does not rule out a scenario of “rotating load shedding”, with cuts by district, if the country does not manage to compensate for this deficit.

The subject is explosive, note franceinfo. If there are cuts, it will generate debates and a social discontent that is difficult to manage”, explains on the media site Nicolas Goldberg, energy expert at Colombus Consulting.

However, the procedure is beautiful and well prepared, and measured. It is therefore the Electricity Transmission Network (RTE) which will be responsible for planning the cuts.

“It’s an organized, controlled and targeted plan. We distribute the effort throughout the territory”, entrusted the service to franceinfo. How are they going to organize themselves? Who will be affected, and when?

In our slideshow, discover the details of the plan that could be rolled out this winter.