France, which had experienced tensions on its electricity supply last winter, is in a better situation for the next cold season, said a senior official at the Ministry of Ecological Transition on Tuesday.
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"
We believe that we are in a less tense situation than that of last year, which had been affected by the Covid crisis, with an inevitable delay in the maintenance programs of nuclear power plants
", declared Laurent Michel, Director General of Energy and climate.
"
In 2021/22, winter is like any winter under surveillance but the situation is rather better than last year
", he added during a hearing of the fact-
finding
mission on national resilience in the assembly.
"
The availability of the nuclear fleet will be higher
"
Last winter, the RTE network manager warned that France could experience electricity supply difficulties, in particular in the event of a cold snap in February, the health crisis having disrupted the maintenance of EDF's nuclear reactors.
“
Normally the availability of nuclear power will be higher this fall than the previous year,
” said Laurent Michel, also citing the good filling of hydroelectric dams.
RTE estimated in March that the electricity system would only have very low margins over the 2021-24 period due not only to the health crisis but also to delays at the Flamanville EPR (Manche) and the development of renewable energies.
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Also auditioned by the fact-finding mission, the president of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) Jean-François Carenco, for his part, said he was “worried” about the situation in Guyana.
“Blackout is threatening in Guyana.
By dint of banning the production of electricity, there will be blackouts, ”or generalized power outages, he declared.
In July, the summary judge of the Cayenne administrative court suspended the project for a new EDF plant in Larivot, which is to run on liquid biofuels. The State and EDF appealed in cassation to the Council of State. "If this appeal was negative, I have no solution," said Jean-François Carenco. "It's urgent" while the thermal power station of Dégrad des Cannes, near Cayenne, "is at the end of the line", he insisted.