“There is no need to panic,” says Marlène Schiappa

Rotating load shedding, canceled trains, closed schools… In a circular, the government asks the prefects to anticipate possible power cuts this winter. The objective is thus to avoid the black-out, a general breakdown with much heavier consequences. According to the Secretary of State for the Social and Solidarity Economy and Associative Life, Marlène Schiappa, “there is no need for panic”. “If each of us makes these small gestures, we will reduce consumption by 10% in accordance with the government’s plan and there will therefore be no cuts”, she assured the microphone of Europe 1.

How will they be organised, who will be affected and how can they be avoided?

Commonplace in many foreign countries where sensitive customers have emergency generators, these rotating load shedding, linked to a lack of electricity due to historically low production of the nuclear fleet, would be “unpublished” in France, according to RTE.

Power cuts would be “inevitable if electricity consumption does not decrease” at the peak of the day (between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. and between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.), warns RTE, which forecasts the month of January as the most at risk. These targeted cuts will last a maximum of two consecutive hours in parts of the departments.

How many cuts are envisaged?

The interministerial crisis unit is working on the hypothesis of six to ten load shedding during the winter. Corsica, which has its own production, is not affected. The French will be warned by a red EcoWatt signal sent by RTE, the manager of high and very high voltage lines. The risk is “a few days of red EcoWatt throughout the winter”, warned Xavier Piechaczyk, chairman of the executive board of RTE on Franceinfo on Thursday, even if it “essentially” depends on the weather.

>> More information to follow…