France has not ruled out a power outage in the winter

MOSCOW, 14 Sep — PRIME. French national electricity grid operator RTE has not ruled out the risk of blackouts in the country this winter, noting that they can be avoided by reducing energy consumption by one to five percent, BFMTV reported, citing the operator’s communiqué.

“We cannot completely eliminate the risks of blackouts, but they can be avoided by reducing energy consumption at the national level by 1% – 5% in most cases – and by 15% under severe winter conditions,” the TV channel reports.

The company stressed that enhanced energy conservation efforts will help to cope with the risk of high load on the electricity grid this winter.

In the summer, the French government launched an “energy sobriety” program to reduce electricity consumption by 10% to avoid shortages in the coming winter. The authorities called on businesses and transport companies to submit specific plans to reduce energy consumption. Some French companies, including two major glassmakers Duralex and Arc, said they had already reduced production volumes and transferred a number of employees to part-time work. Also, due to increased energy bills in the metropolis, about 30 swimming pools have stopped working, including the Pailleron, the largest sports complex in Paris.