This weekend of Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 December 2022, temperatures are dropping in France. However, the first orange EcoWatt signal of the season should be avoided on Monday.
[Mis à jour le 10 décembre 2022 à 17h01] France should avoid a first Ecowatt orange alert, this Monday, December 12, 2022. If the national electricity system could well be strongly impacted by the cooling of temperatures next week, the Electricity Transport Network (TEN) wants to be reassuring in its last point. It indicates that the level remains green, which means that “the level of electricity consumption is lower than the production available for the day and that we have sufficient margins.” However, the country’s electricity transmission manager recalls that the temperatures, which will drop this weekend and at the start of next week, could push the French to turn up the heating and therefore increase the country’s energy expenditure. .
The orange alert is therefore dismissed. On the other hand, the forecasts can still evolve even if no cut is planned for the moment. Contrary to the red alert, the orange alert does not mean in any case a risk of cut. On a voluntary basis, French people are simply asked to make occasional efforts on their consumption.
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Forecasts may change
The Ecowatt website set up by RTE in September aims to alert the population in real time to avoid electricity shortages and power cuts this winter. The orange signal is synonymous with a “tense” electrical system and calls for “eco-gestures” on the part of individuals and businesses. It is in the event of a red signal that load shedding – in other words preventive cuts – can be decided to avoid the blackout.
RTE indicates that the forecasts for this weekend and for next week may still change “significantly”. But this first Ecowatt alert, if it happened, would concretize the fears fueled for a week by the operators and by the government, which sent a circular to the prefects to anticipate the load shedding.