The French Government is preparing for the possibility of having to do this. arrange “restrictions” or “cuts” in its supply gas before the closure of the faucet by Russia, but this will not affect private consumers, something that is not excluded with electricity.
Prime minister, Elizabeth BorneIn an interview broadcast Tuesday-Wednesday night on TMC channel, he confirmed that Gazprom has decided to completely cease gas supply to French operator Engie from Thursday, but wants to send a message that is intended to be reassuring. .
“Engie found other sources of supply“There are other sources of supply besides Russian gas,” the prime minister said.
He then stated that his Managers are prepared for this scenario and that “we will need to prepare hypotheses where there may be limitations or cutbacks”.
he pointed “The gas of the French families will not be cut off, but our companiesbig consumers, those who may be outages”.
Borne stressed that “anything that can be done voluntarily to reduce our consumption will prevent us from making cuts next winter,” as he believes no one wants this to happen.
The supply cut – he stated – is a series of coincidences: if Russia cuts off the gas tap, there are “strains” in liquefied natural gas (which comes by ship) and orders cannot be fulfilled, and “if there is a very cold winter”.
Gazprom has been turning off the tap for months
announcement Complete suspension of the supply of Engie by Gazprom This comes after the Russian company has drastically reduced its shipments in recent months amid the heat of the war in Ukraine.
According to Engie, it recently only got 1.5 terawatt hours per month; this is comparable to the 400 terawatt-hours of gas that Engie, France’s main supplier, receives annually in Europe for its supply.
Emmanuelle Wargon, head of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), said on Wednesday that they were not “very concerned” about Gazprom’s decision to source from France, but “first and foremost at the price we are at”. There will be repercussions.”
In an interview with LCI, Wargon reminded that in the past, Russia provided 17% of France’s consumption, but recently this rate has already dropped to 9%.
France has 91% reserves
The head of this industry regulatory body, Existing gas reserves in France at 91% of their capacity and it will rise to over 95% or even 100% before November 1st and the start of winter season.
These reserves represent about 25% of the gas consumption in France each year. Wargon stated that France will continue to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) by ship, which will allow it to continue to meet consumption.
In electricity, the situation is different because -he added – France now has a “lower than normal” production capacityBecause most of the nuclear power plants have been stopped (32 out of 56), which means that the country will be “more dependent on imports”.
The head of the CRE emphasized that this will be necessary for both individuals and people. companies apply sobriety measureshow to avoid electricity consumption during peak hours, ie late afternoon and early night, as much as possible.
Wargon emphasized that during these consumption peaks, “supply and demand adaptation was made on a European scale” depending on the production capacities in some countries and others.
It also acknowledged that in the event of an interruption in the electricity supply, no distinction can be made between companies and private consumers.