Electricity: restrictions during the winter?
Boursorama with AFP the 07 / 11 / 2017
Cold wave, nuclear reactors shut down ... To ensure the supply of French homes, the RTE electricity network manager may have to take "exceptional" measures this winter, which could go as far as power cuts. "momentary" electricity.
Unplanned plant shutdowns or unusual climatic conditions "could weaken the French electricity supply" during the colder months, indicates RTE on Tuesday, November 7 in its forecast report. The country's security of electricity supply is particularly sensitive in winter, due to the important role of electricity in heating the French people.
The supply of energy production will be greater than that of last winter, when a large number of EDF nuclear power plants were closed, underlines RTE. However, the network manager has placed the coming winter "under surveillance", meaning that it will require special vigilance.
REDUCED VOLTAGE ON ELECTRICAL NETWORKS?
The exceptional measures that could be taken are the interruption of the supply of large voluntary industrial consumers or a drop of 5% in the voltage on the electrical networks. For this last measurement, this would result, for example, in a lower light intensity.
As a very last resort, RTE could decide to “momentary, localized and rotating power cuts”. An alert, via the media and social networks, could be broadcast the day before for the next day, encouraging the French to reduce their consumption during peak hours (between 8 a.m. and 13 p.m., then between 18 p.m. and 20 p.m.).
Turn off the light in empty rooms, lower the temperature by one or two degrees in the home ... According to RTE, these "simple actions" would allow "to have at least 2.000 to 3.000 MW of reduced electricity consumption", or the equivalent of two to three nuclear reactors.
In November 2016, RTE had alerted for the first time to the risks for the supply of electricity during the winter in the event of extreme cold. The manager had planned to ask 21 voluntary industrial sites to stop their activity, the time to spend a tip on demand.
"DIFFICULTY" IN REDUCING THE NUCLEAR SHARE TO 50%
RTE also pointed out on Tuesday the "difficulty" in reducing the share of nuclear power to 50% of French electricity production by 2025 to meet the target of reducing CO2 emissions. The 2015 law on energy transition plans to reduce the share of atoms in French electricity production from 75% to 50% by 2025.
According to RTE's calculations, to achieve this deadline, it would be necessary to shut down 24 nuclear reactors with a capacity of 900 megawatts in parallel with strong development of renewable energies (with around 10.500 onshore wind turbines and 750 offshore in the country) .
This scenario also implies that the closure of highly polluting coal-fired power stations should be postponed beyond 2025. It also assumes the construction of a "significant number" of new gas-fired power stations. Only the closure of the nuclear power station of Fessenheim (Haut-Rhin) is currently recorded.
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