In 2023, the French have not left energy sobriety aside.
According to the latest consumption figures, the decline continued again last week, for both electricity and gas.
With regard to electricity, the decline - corrected for weather and calendar effects - amounted, over the last seven days, to 7.5% compared to the average for previous years (excluding health crisis) on the same period, according to the RTE network manager.
To discover
Pension reform: calculate the age at which you will finally leave
A lesser decrease than the previous week (-8.9%), but which still allows for a notable drop in consumption over the last four weeks of 8.2% compared to the average for previous years (2014-2019 ).
“
Since the beginning of winter, we have stabilized at -8.5%.
It is absolutely considerable
”, greeted this Wednesday morning on Franceinfo Xavier Piechaczyk, the president of the executive board of RTE.
Read alsoAre we going to run out of gas and electricity?
Follow the evolution of the energy situation in France on a daily basis
In its weekly summary of electricity consumption, published on Tuesday evening, RTE stresses that "
it is now firmly established that [this downward movement] concerns all sectors of activity and is not explained solely, or mainly, by a drop economic activity in industry
.
"
While it remains difficult to distinguish in this movement the respective parts of chosen sobriety and economic constraint, the successful national mobilization in favor of energy savings plays an important role
", adds the manager.
13% drop for gas
On Franceinfo, Xavier Piechaczyk confirmed that RTE had "
difficulty separating
" the drop observed "
between the involvement of the French and companies in sobriety and the price signal
", the latter having been at the origin of the drop in production decreed by some large companies.
In any case, this situation allows the manager to be optimistic for the rest of the winter regarding the non-use of targeted cuts.
"
Most of the risks are behind us
", affirmed Xavier Piechaczyk, although there remain "
some risks (...) around the second half of February (...) if we were to go through a major cold snap and long
”.
Read alsoPower cuts: "Most of the risks are behind us", according to the president of RTE
On the gas side, the drop in consumption is even more impressive, and is confirmed from week to week.
Between August 1 and January 15, it amounted to -17.6% compared to the same period in 2018-2019 (before the Covid crisis), and -12.8% corrected for the climate, according to data from the main gas carrier GRTgaz.
It "
results from a significant reduction in the consumption of public distribution and large industrialists connected to the transmission network
", explains the company.
On the other hand, "
it is partly compensated by a greater demand on gas-fired power plants to ensure the balance of the electricity system
", she adds.
Excluding electricity production, the decline in gas consumption actually reached -16.6% (corrected for the weather).
What to alleviate the tensions on the networks.