A few months ago, governments and operators warned of the risk of a power shortage this winter and of probable load shedding operations. From now on, the “black-out” moves away, at least until mid-January, from the words of the president of the Commission for the regulation of energy (CRE) Emmanuelle Wargon. The call for energy sobriety would have been “really heard by the French”, assures the former Minister of Ecology.
According to data published on Tuesday by the operator of the high-voltage electricity network RTE, electricity consumption continues to fall in France, with a drop of 7.4% last week compared to the average for previous years (2014-2019). ) the same week. To compare the different weeks, RTE normalizes its data, removing the effect of temperatures and meteorology, among other things.
In other words, if temperatures above seasonal norms have played a role in household consumption habits, RTE highlights a structural variation in electricity consumption. This can come from economic activity or actions oriented towards energy sobriety, specifies the network manager. Over the past four weeks, the average structural decline has reached 8.7%.
“It really means that people are paying attention and that they anticipate the increase in regulated prices, which will be 15% in January for gas, and 15% in February for electricity”, indicated Emmanuelle Wargon. Afterwards, if there is a cold snap, the situation will necessarily be more tense”, she nevertheless warned, welcoming, on France Inter, the “citizen gesture” of the French.
The clemency of the weather would even have had a perverse effect. Last week, temperatures were significantly above normal for the season, with a positive difference reaching 8.2°C on Friday 23 December. Temperatures that allow you to continue heating as before… at the same price as before. What dissuade to continue the efforts of sobriety, advances RTE, noting that the fall in consumption has eased as the mercury climbed.
But despite what Emmanuel Macron’s former minister points out, the decline is also explained by factors other than the individual attitude of the French. Thus, in a press release published a few hours before RTE, the electricity supplier Enedis pointed out to him that public lighting experienced “a historic drop” of 20%, during the first two weeks of December. Companies have also largely participated in this effort, recalls RTE.
