Guillaume Dominguez
06:52, November 21, 2022modified to
07:19, November 21, 2022
RTE estimated on Friday that there was now a “high” risk of tensions on the French electricity network in January, due to the restart of EDF nuclear reactors at a slower than expected shutdown. A pessimistic announcement that could entail risks of network load shedding to avoid a blackout. Overview of the electricity shortage vocabulary.
The threat reappears. The manager of the electricity transmission network RTE estimated on Friday that there was now a “high” risk of tensions on the French electricity network in January, due to the restart of EDF nuclear reactors slower than expected. EDF is betting on 65% of the capacity of the nuclear fleet. A pessimistic scenario which could, according to the authorities, lead to load shedding of the network to avoid a blackout. Load shedding, blackout, what are we talking about?
Load shedding, a voluntary power outage
Load shedding is voluntary power cuts, which relieve the electrical network in the event of excessive voltage. For example, when consumers switch on their electric heaters at the same time during very cold weather. These power cuts are targeted, rotating and temporary. This means that they will target certain areas of the network in turn, such as municipalities or districts of large cities and will not last more than two hours, on specific time slots, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 5:30 p.m. at 8:30 p.m.
Load shedding is part of the usual panoply intended to avoid blackouts, that is to say the generalized and uncontrolled breakdown of the network, in the event of too high voltages. Some users classified as “sensitive” are not cut off, such as hospitals, national defense sites, security sites, or risk industries.
Source: Europe1
I am a journalist who writes about economics and business. I have worked in the news industry for over 5 years, most recently as an author at Global Happenings. My work has focused on covering the economy news, and I have written extensively on topics such as unemployment rates, housing prices, and the financial crisis. I am also an avid reader and have been known to write about books that interest me.
