EDF announces in Le Parisien on Friday November 12 that electricity will no longer be cut off in households that do not pay their bills.
In the columns of Parisian, Friday November 12, 2021, EDF announces that electricity meters will no longer be cut in households that do not pay their bills. This decision, already put into practice during the winter break which applies from November 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022 in accordance with what is required by law, will then apply throughout the year. On the other hand, in the event of unpaid bills, the power of electricity will be reduced in order to allow residents to “keep essential uses“but they will have to do without heating. For example, for a subscription set at 3 kilovoltampere (kVA), the power will be reduced to 2 kVA. For a 6kVA subscription, the power will be 3kVA.
Clearly, a minimum of 1 kVA must be available in French households for twelve months. Marc Benayoun, Director of the Customers, Services and Territories division of the EDF group, details in Parisian what this means in concrete terms: “Enough to keep the essential uses: lighting, recharging phones, a water heater, a washing machine, Internet or even a small refrigerator. But the rest, heating for example, no longer works”, he says about this decision taken following the health crisis.
Power cuts already interrupted during Covid-19
Due to Covid-19, the company then interrupted the power cuts. Result: the average duration of payment of unpaid debts had not lengthened. “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”, Continues the representative of EDF. Until then, EDF used to cut between 200,000 and 300,000 meters per year. Since the installation of the Linky meters, it is now easier to perform this operation. Indeed, the use of a technician is no longer compulsory. For information, EDF’s competitors have not announced a similar measure.