EDF will stop cutting off electricity to individuals in the event of unpaid bills

Electricité de France (EDF) announced on Friday, November 12 that it would stop asking for electricity to be cut for its private customers with unpaid bills. This measure will now apply throughout the year and not only during the winter break, specifies the French company of production and distribution of electricity in a statement.

” This measure (…) will apply in all cases, except if there is a physical or technical impossibility to limit the power of the electrical supply of the dwelling ”, she added.

As a replacement, the group will ask, from 1er April 2022, the power limitation to 1 kilovolt-ampere (kVA), which allows access to essential uses such as lighting, the operation of kitchen equipment – such as the refrigerator – or the recharging of appliances electronic, the statement said.

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Currently, the law prevents energy suppliers from interrupting their service for non-payment of bills relating to a main residence between 1er November and March 31.

Soaring prices

This announcement is part of the position taken by the national energy mediator in favor of the right to minimum access to electricity for the most precarious households, and the soaring energy prices in the in recent months against the backdrop of a global economic recovery. “Without electricity, no light, no heating, no Internet or telephone access. It is not acceptable, in a country like France, that households can find themselves in such a situation of precariousness and poverty ”, pleaded Olivier Challan Belval.

In France, the government recently announced measures to address the rise in energy prices, which is affecting the whole of Europe: a check for an additional 100 euros for precarious households, a freeze on the increase in the price of gas and a limitation that of the electricity tariff.

In its press release, EDF underlines that it has already favored, for several years, limiting power to demand for power cuts. According to the group, this choice has reduced the number of cuts by a third in five years.

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The electricity supplier had interrupted the practice of power cuts during confinement linked to the health crisis. “We realized that we were achieving almost as good results, in terms of regularizing situations and repaying debts, using other means. And in particular the power limitation ”, explained to Parisian Marc Benayoun, director of the group’s customers, services and territories division.

Le Monde with AFP and Reuters

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