In an interview with the TV channel France 2, French Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher said, that since last October, electricity and gas consumption in the nation has fallen by 12%, after an energy conservation program was introduced to the population.
France launched the energy conservation program last year, as gas prices skyrocketed to record highs, triggering fears of power outages due to a collapse in fuel supplies. The program was called “energy sobriety,” and was designed to cut power consumption by 10% by the end of 2024.
The minister noted, however that so far the nation has exceeded the targeted reduction in half of the time allotted, which will leave the nation “in a much better position than last year,” removing the risk of blackouts in the upcoming heating season.
The minster said, “We are now at 12%. We announced it for the end of 2024, we did it in the first year. […] It is a drop in gas and electricity combined and it is corrected for the weather effects.”
She added that the fight to continue to reduce consumption should go on, so as to prevent the threat of shortages from reappearing in the future.
She said, “We are going to stay on this objective. The challenge is to make the changes structural, so that we do not have to return to this objective and these habits that we establish take root… We must continue our efforts at sobriety.”
France experienced an energy crisis last year after Russia reduced gas flows to the European Union due primarily to maintenance issues with the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline. Later a sabotage attack shut down all flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, as well as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The situation was made worse by the fact that half of the nation’s nuclear power plants were shut down for maintenance and repairs.
Pannier-Runacher said however, that since then, France has, “gained the equivalent of five reactors in production compared to last year.”
The Energy Sobriety program had stipulated that the temperature within private houses and administrative buildings should not surpass 19 degrees Celsius, while in warehouses it should be reduced to 16 degrees. It said water heaters should be set at 55 degrees.
Authorities also approved a ban on displaying lit advertising between 1AM and 6AM, and made it illegal for businesses to keep the doors to their stores open if either the heat or the air conditioning is on. It also mandated that the duration during which stadium lights are kept lit before and after matches would need to be reduced by 50% during the day, and by 30% at night.
