“We are in an unprecedented situation, but there is no stress, no feverishness. Drivers train. » Olivier Loriot, regional director, for the Centre-Val de Loire, of Enedis (subsidiary of EDF) – the manager of the electricity distribution network –, wants to be reassuring: ” We are ready “he insists, while the government mentioned, Wednesday, November 30, potential power cuts this winter, in the wake of the shortages caused by the war in Ukraine.
Behind him, several technicians, their eyes riveted on their six screens, scrutinize, in a studious atmosphere, the 80,000 kilometers of electrical network in the area. On the wall, other screens broadcast live the gray weather outside, according to a series of sophisticated criteria. From time to time, an alarm sounds to signal an incident.
Experienced in the daily management of breakdowns, these operators know that in the event of a national supply problem, they will be at the forefront. “Our preparation has intensified, assures Mr. Loriot, and this, since the very first alerts from RTE [Réseau de transport d’électricité] in June “, he adds.
On November 18, the network manager called for increased vigilance in the face of an increased risk of tension on the national network in January 2023, due in particular to a lack of nuclear electricity. To this end, several outage simulation exercises “scheduled load shedding”, in the internal jargon) supposed to avoid the generalized failure (or “black-out”) have already been carried out, both at local and national level. The next one should take place at the beginning of December.
“Principle of solidarity”
A veritable control tower, this Enedis regional driving agency, located near Orléans and whose address is kept secret, is one of 28 scattered throughout the territory in charge (24 hours a day). and seven days a week) network monitoring and security. In the event of an imbalance between supply and demand, if production and imports no longer cover demand, it is up to RTE to give the alert.
However, it is Enedis who would have control over the cuts. In such a scenario, “RTE would send us a first alert three days in advance”explains Sébastien Sarrazin, head of the Centre-Val de Loire regional driving agency. “AJ − 2, we would receive the estimates on the number of 100 megawatt units that it is necessary to cut [un bloc équivaut à 100 000 clients] and at D − 1, we would be able to define a targeted load shedding plan that we would be ready to activate the next day”he explains, while all this data will be processed by an algorithm.
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