By Hugues-Olivier Dumez
Published on 8 Jan 21 at 8:01
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The message is clear. Due to the drop in temperatures, French electricity consumption has reached a high level which reduces the available safety margin, indicates the manager of the Electricity transmission network.
The latter has just activated the red signal on his site MonEcowatt.fr on a national level. If no power cuts are planned, RTE encourages residents to reduce their consumption, Friday, January 8, 2021 on the 7 am-1pm time slot.
Lower temperatures
Due to the drop in temperatures (-4 this morning to Toulouse), the electricity consumption of the French will reach a high level tomorrow (forecast of 88,000 MW). But RTE’s forecasts indicate that generation will be sufficient (88,200 MW) to cover all needs. Nevertheless, the safety margins will be reduced.
Overall, the region Occitanie product, renewable and nuclear energy, up to what it consumes. As a reminder, half of production in Occitania comes from renewable energies. Hydraulic dams today are well filled. The water reserves are at a good level. But electricity production is managed at the scale of France.
Eco-friendly actions to take
In order to avoid any risk of a power cut, RTE encourages the French to reduce their electricity consumption by applying eco-friendly actions presented on the site MonEcowatt.fr.
For example, if all French people turn off a light bulb, an electricity consumption saving of 600 MW is achieved, which is approximately the consumption of a city like Toulouse.
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