Enlarge image
High-voltage power lines near Gravelines, France (pictured November 29)
Photo: PASCAL ROSSIGNOL / REUTERS
Shortly before the announced cold snap in France, 40 of 56 nuclear reactors are back online in France.
In the night of Friday, three reactors were put into operation, said the nuclear operator EDF.
Due to technical problems and maintenance work, electricity production in France has been at an all-time low for months.
France is therefore importing more electricity than before from Germany, which for its part has been purchasing gas directly from France for the first time since October.
With the currently running nuclear reactors, the output is 39 gigawatts, 61 gigawatts are installed.
For the first time in 42 years, France imported more electricity than it exported this year.
In the summer, up to 32 nuclear reactors were shut down at the same time.
Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire and EDF boss Luc Remont on Friday visited the Penly site on the English Channel, where the first of eight new nuclear reactors that France is planning to build.
The government has been calling on households and companies to save electricity for weeks.
EDF estimates that consumption in November fell by around ten percent compared to the same month last year, which is mainly due to industry.
Because of the high energy prices, several companies have shut down production.
Incident in Paris
The French authorities are also preparing for possible hourly power outages in winter.
Because of the tense supply situation, France wants to try out controlled power cuts.
Shortly before an exercise, however, there was an unplanned incident in the capital: the power went out over a large area in Paris.
Read more about this here.
The reduced electricity production in France is apparently also causing concern in Baden-Württemberg.
According to a confidential paper from the Ministry of the Environment in Stuttgart, so-called "brownouts" in Baden-Württemberg cannot be completely ruled out, reports the "Bild".
The letter quoted by "Bild" says that these are "rolling shutdowns" that should last about one and a half hours.
ani/AFP
