Published
FranceThe winter of 2023-2024 will “probably” be the riskiest
French Energy Regulatory Commission President Emmanuelle Wargon said on Thursday that the coming winter may not be the worst, energy-wise.
Power outages cannot be ruled out in France.
AFP
The risk of targeted power cuts in January or February cannot be “excluded”, but the winter most at risk will “probably” be that of 2023-2024, the President of the Regulatory Commission estimated on Thursday evening. energy, Emmanuelle Wargon.
“We have a delicate winter there now and we probably also have a delicate or difficult winter in 2023-2024. This is also where what will be done on gas imports, electricity imports, the continuation of community emergency measures, the start of reflection on the organization of the market, this will have an impact on the winter 23-24”, she declared on BFM Business.
“We have a good chance that it will not go too badly for the winter of 2022-2023. For 2023-2024, it is still really very uncertain”, she added, acknowledging that this second winter under tension would “probably” be the most risky.
Targeted cuts not excluded
Regarding this winter, she again indicated that we could not “exclude that there are targeted cuts. It’s not 100% sure. It will depend on our sobriety or not, the weather, our ability to react when the RTE network manager announces that it is very tense. The Enedis electricity distribution network “is preparing for it with the prefects in case. We are always in “just in case”. It is not written that this will happen”, she underlined
Fear of cuts has been reignited after the latest forecast from RTE, the electricity transmission system operator, which warned last Friday of a “high” risk of tensions on the electricity system in January, due to the restart more slower than expected of EDF’s nuclear reactors – almost half of which are still shut down.
“A Critical Moment”
Asked about electricity prices, Emmanuelle Wargon indicated that the evolution of things would depend on a “critical moment” which is “the arrival of the reactors which are currently under maintenance or repair under constraint for the production grid in December and January.
“If they arrive in accordance with EDF’s updated forecasts, that means that we will be able to cope in January if it is not too cold and that means that prices for the first and second quarters could stabilize, or even drop,” she said.
(AFP)