The crunch in electricity supply comes at the worst possible time
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskSo it came as a shock when President Emmanuel Macron chose the national holiday on July 14th to tell the French that they too had to cut back. He has urged a regime of energy “sobriety”, to reduce consumption and waste. The government wants to shrink overall French energy use by 10% by 2024. It will fine shops if they leave their street doors open while the air-conditioning is on, or their commercial signs lit up all night.
For a country that prizes the semi-independence offered by its nuclear-power industry, this squeeze is awkward. French Greens and left-wing parties may dislike nuclear power. But the country’s nuclear power stations, the first of which opened in 1963, have historically been a source of pride. Today they provide 42% of all energy, compared with just 6% in Germany. While Germany has been phasing out nuclear, Mr Macron plans to build at least six new next-generation reactors in France.
Yet, at the worst possible time, France’s fleet of nuclear stations are under pressure. Over half of the country’s 56 reactors are shut for maintenance, due to routine inspections as well as corrosion issues. Output this winter is expected to be 25% below that in a normal year. To compensate, France has had to buy electricity on wholesale markets. It plans to reopen a coal-fired power station in Saint-Avold, mothballed only in March.
crisis in 2018-19 how an increase in fuel prices can crystallise anger. In contrast to other European countries, consumers in France have been shielded from the worst fuel-price inflation. This week parliament approved fresh subsidies at the pump. But such untargeted measures cannot last forever, and they undermine the parallel effort to curb energy use. Gas may supply only 16% of French energy, but it is used to heat two-fifths of households. When prices do rise, things could turn nasty.
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