PARIS, Dec 1 Brief blackouts likely in France this winter of electricity in some areas during peak hours of energy consumption, subject to low temperatures, said the head of the French national electric grid operator RTE, Xavier Piechazik. for a maximum of two hours to avoid an imbalance in our power grids,” Piechazik told radio station FranceInfo.
Pieshazik explained that the shutdowns will be exclusively local and will not affect the entire territory of the metropolis at once. He noted that during these temporary blackouts, several million French people will be left without electricity.
«The maximum will be 10 million people, we expect that there will be less. If we all save energy, there will be blackouts in general will be much less,» he said.
The head of RTE also said that the French will be notified of planned power outages three days in advance, and it will be possible to avoid them until the last minute if all residents make efforts to reduce energy consumption.
«During this time, the weather forecast will already be clear, because it is it that affects energy consumption. This winter we will be very dependent on temperatures — the colder it is, the higher the risks of power outages,» he added.
In October, RTE warned that they do not rule out the risk of blackouts this winter, noting that they can only be avoided if power consumption is reduced by 1%-5% and by 15% in the event of an extremely cold winter. The RTE said that the inability to restart the disconnected nuclear power units on time threatens with «serious consequences» for the energy supply in the winter.
At the moment, 31 out of 56 nuclear reactors are operating in France. Some of them were stopped for scheduled repairs, on 12 spring traces of corrosion were found on the welds connected to the primary circuit of the pipes of the emergency reactor cooling system. EDF has previously pledged to restart all shutdown reactors before winter to avoid power shortages in the country.