The prefects received the circular from Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne during the day. It is up to them to prepare their territories for the possibility of rotating power cuts this winter. This is a last resort lever that can be activated by RTE, the manager of the electricity transmission network, to reduce consumption and avoid a large-scale blackout – a blackout. Because if the measurement is still hypothetical, the risk of tension exists on the electricity network, in particular for the month of January 2023.
The reason ? A combination of factors: the possibility of a cold spell and therefore overconsumption by citizens, national energy production which is running below forecasts (with many nuclear reactors shut down due to corrosion problems or prolonged maintenance ), uncertainty about the capacity of interconnections with other countries… Government communication therefore aims to prepare the ground and minds. There is “a risky situation but these cuts should not be considered inevitable”, reassured Xavier Piechaczyk, chairman of the executive board of RTE, on Franceinfo this Thursday morning, recalling the need to lower consumption.
The use of rotating load shedding – which would be a first – is governed by an order of July 5, 1990. The cuts will not target certain so-called priority users: medical establishments and laboratories, signaling and street lighting installations considered essential to security, high-risk industries such as those in the Defense sector. The prefectures have already worked on the sheltering of these critical infrastructures – hospitals, fire and gendarmerie stations, police stations, prisons, etc -, the government circular having to complete this work.
Patients in home hospitalization (HAD) at “high vital risk”, who very often need medical equipment connected to the mains, will be monitored via a system set up with doctors and regional health agencies (ARS ), the government said. This would concern approximately 3,800 people. Another particularity: Corsica will not be targeted by these cuts, the Isle of Beauty being connected to the Italian electricity network.
These rotating load shedding would thus concern, once excluded the priority users and the lucky ones connected to these lines, almost 60% of the population. No department can be relieved in its entirety and, for the sake of equality, an area cannot be relieved twice in a row. This will be done in an alternative way and will resemble, according to the graphic analogy of the government, the spots of a “leopard skin” on the territory. The temporary power cuts would take place at times when consumption peaks are recorded, i.e. between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and should last an average of two hours. Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays “should not be affected” due to the drop in activity these days, specifies the government.
Information on the households concerned will be available in three stages. An Ecowatt signal – the “electricity weather” – orange or red will be issued three days in advance to indicate an upcoming period of tension. It will be confirmed the next day by RTE with (another) red signal. The prefects will inform the elected officials of the risks of load shedding, without however specifying the zones concerned, then the citizens will be able to inform their address, the day before at 5 p.m., on the Internet site of Enedis or RTE in order to know if they will be the target from a cut the next day. Load shedding will be activated remotely, by computer, by one of Enedis’ regional control agencies. The latter will have received from RTE, the day before the day before, an estimate of the number of blocks – and therefore of customers – to be cut and will have defined the targeted load shedding plan using an algorithm. It will then be done at the level of the source substations which supply the districts.
Ahead of any cut, the government plans to intensify awareness campaigns. “Information on eco-gestures, generating energy savings, should be amplified, from D-3, for all stakeholders and the entire population”, he says. Because “any drop in consumption on D-Day is likely to reduce the final scope of load shedding”.
Certain establishments and services could also be affected by these temporary cuts. Schools for example. In this case, childcare cannot be provided in the morning, as safety requirements are no longer met. Trains may also be canceled and metro services interrupted during certain time slots. Because if the electrical network that supplies them is independent and does not risk a cut, the signaling would be well affected.
Public lighting, already partially extinguished in some cities for the sake of economy at a time when electricity prices are exploding, would also be included in load shedding. The government has thus warned that traffic could be limited by the prefects during this period, because the absence of impact on traffic lights cannot be completely ruled out given the complexity of the electrical networks.
This is one of the areas that the government still needs to refine. What about telephone networks? Without electricity, the antennas do not work. In the areas affected by the load shedding, “users will not be able to contact the emergency services (emergency call numbers 15, 17, 18, 115, 196)”, wrote the Prime Minister in the circular sent to the prefects and consulted by Europe 1. The government recommends favoring the use of 112, the European emergency number, because it is “accessible regardless of the operator, therefore with much higher chances than calling be routed, as long as the transmission area is covered by at least one operator.”
On Wednesday, the general manager of Orange, Christel Heydemann, had already warned that a load shedding would indeed “have an impact” on the emergency numbers. “Mobile services, if they are turned off in a geographical area for two hours, there will be no access to emergency number services for a time,” she told the business committee. Economics of the Senate.
Backup systems – batteries – exist on some antennas and “will take over”, added Christel Heydemann. But “if load shedding increases, we don’t know how the network will behave”. She gave the example of a “situation where the light is working in an apartment, but the mobile [networks] are not working because the tower is in an area which is itself unloaded, and vice versa”. A map of the “white zones” where the relay antennas would be cut is in progress and reinforcement of the emergency call centers is also planned. Enedis and RTE will organize a nationwide test on Friday, November 9, in which the prefectures will be associated.
