Most of the risks of power cuts this winter are ” behind us “assured the chairman of the executive board of RTE Xavier Piechaczyk on Franceinfo this Wednesday, January 18, while warning that there were still some risks “concentrates” at this stage of the forecast “around the second half of February”.
These risks, at this stage of the forecast, will arise “if we go through a long and significant cold period” because “the nuclear fleet [disponible] will decrease” in the coming weeks, said Xavier Piechaczyk.
RTE: “To avoid possible cuts, we need a national mobilization”
RTE will publish in the morning the update of its electricity forecasts for the next four weeks.
An “absolutely considerable” drop in consumption
At its lowest during the summer of 2022 due to maintenance and repair operations, the availability of nuclear reactors has risen in recent weeks, reaching 71.85% on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, 43 of the 56 reactors in EDF’s nuclear fleet were connected to the network, levels that had not been seen for a long time, according to EDF data analyzed by AFP. “If we were to encounter a tension on the system, I still want to say that France is better prepared to manage them”underlined Xavier Piechaczyk.
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The easing on the French electricity network can also be explained by the drop “absolutely considerable” electricity consumption. According to data published by RTE on Tuesday evening, French electricity consumption (corrected for weather and calendar effects) fell by 8.2% over the last four weeks compared to the average for previous years (2014-2019, excluding the crisis). sanitary).
