Yanis Darras
modified to
9:31 a.m., December 8, 2023
The year 2022 was a dark year for the French electricity network. In the middle of the first year of war in Ukraine, part of the nuclear reactors had to be shut down, due to the maintenance schedule and that of the major refit which were turned upside down due to Covid-19, but also due to corrosion under constraint. Several reactors thus presented micro-cracks in their secondary cooling networks.
“We have reduced our energy consumption”
At the same time, the historic drought made it impossible to compensate for even a small part of the loss of nuclear production thanks to the dams. Thus, France found itself a net importer of electricity last year, a status it had not had for 40 years. The government then had to consider scheduling possible load shedding, while launching a major awareness campaign to reduce electricity consumption in the country.
Asked about a possible risk of cuts this year, the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, assures us: “The risk that weighed last year was a risk of organized load shedding and I confirm to you today “Now that there is no risk of load shedding because we have worked, because EDF has worked to reconnect its nuclear reactors to the network. Because collectively, we have reduced our energy consumption”, he says with satisfaction. she said on the set of La Grande interview Europe 1-CNews.
A further increase in 2024
Especially “as this drop in energy is lasting”, adds the minister. “Companies, communities, the French have played the game and gas and electricity consumption has fallen by 12%. These elements allow us today to be very calm about the coming winter”, assures Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
But despite this, the French have not stopped hearing about electrons. Electricity prices should increase again in 2024 by less than 10%, promises Bruno Le Maire. “We still have an electricity shield for very small businesses and for households. I remind you that this year, we are still covering 37% of the French bill. This is the gap between prices on the financial markets of electricity and the price that the French pay on their bills. And we will maintain the energy shield until the price of electricity becomes reasonable again”, she confirms, assuring that the prices “will increase, but not more than 10%.