Aix-en-Provence, Bordeaux and Nice are among the most gourmet cities, unlike Saint-Etienne, Rennes and Mulhouse, which are good students.
Contrary to popular belief, it is the south of France that takes the lead in the departments that consume the most electricity. The UpEnergie platform has published a study on electricity consumption in France based on data from the ORE agency, Enedis and Insee, highlighting the different consumption patterns according to geographical areas. Verdict: Aix-en-Provence, Bordeaux and Nice are among the cities consuming the most in France, while Saint-Etienne, Rennes and Mulhouse are good students.
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UpEnergie has drawn up a table of electricity consumption for the 116 largest cities in France as well as an infographic by department. In dark blue are those whose per capita consumption exceeds 3 MWh per year, against 2.223 MWh for the national average. The south-eastern part of France is over-represented there, as is the Atlantic coast and the southern tip of the Tarn in the Pyrénées-Orientales. On the contrary, we note very low consumption averages in the North as well as in Ile-de-France. The northeast part is also one of the least consuming.
Several factors responsible for the disparities
Seeing cities in the south appear in the most greedy in electricity can however seem surprising, given the cold “lightto which they are confronted in winter. But as UpEnergie explains, although we consume more in winter when temperatures drop, nothing beats summer temperatures which push many southerners to use their fans or air conditioning, which consume a lot of electricity. In effect, “studies show that 1 degree more leads to an increase in consumption of 500MW. Thus during summer peaks, consumption amounts to 12.3kWh per inhabitant, i.e. twice as much as in Île-de-France in the same season.», Details the supplier.
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The disparities between geographical areas also vary according to the methods used by individuals to heat themselves. In the North, for example, UpEnergie explains the low consumption by the fact that the inhabitants of the department still tend to use their domestic fuel oil boiler. The regions of Centre-Val de Loire and Normandy are more equipped than average with electric boilers, which explains their average consumption above the national average. Finally, the insulation of housing has its role to play. “A less insulated home suffers more from heat loss, so you have to heat more to compensate for this loss.», concludes the study.
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