Faced with a winter that is beginning to point the tip of its nose and falling temperatures, the managers of the French electricity transmission network RTE are seriously considering the possibility of cuts from the beginning of January.
And Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne gathered at Matignon this Monday, November 28, the main ministers concerned by the question, as reported by RTL. The purpose of the consultation? “Preparing minds” for these possible cuts.
A priori, the design of a power grid load shedding plan is not a brand new idea: it has been talked about for decades. But the head of government would have found herself, when she entered Matignon, faced with a total absence of a roadmap… Hence the meeting this beginning of the week, which aims to refine the modalities so that nothing is left behind. randomly on the day on which a cut should be programmed.
It should be noted that the threat of cuts could have materialized a few weeks ago already, and if we are anticipating load shedding only in January, we owe it to the weather that has been rather mild until now. But it’s legitimate to wonder how those cuts would have gone if they had come sooner, given that the details on Monday’s meeting agenda are no less important…
The ministers notably addressed the issue of telephone masts. These infrastructures provide coverage of the telephone network, and have little or no battery life. If the current were cut in the wrong place, this portion of the territory would therefore be plunged into cellular darkness. Nothing too serious, you might be thinking, it’s only two hours after all. The problem lies in the fact that even the emergency numbers, especially the emergency number, cannot be contacted.
Finally, the ministers also anticipate a psychological component of the consequences of such cuts: people lighting themselves with candles, this can give households the impression “that the country is falling”, confided a senior adviser to RTL.
