France has an electricity status app, similar to the weather forecast

Users can now get an overview of the state of the output in the country and receive a warning to reduce consumption and avoid power cuts

France is bracing for possible tough winter and despite the government’s policy of “energy sobriety”, which encourages reduced consumption by municipal bodies and companies, power outages are not out of the question.

The French government has sent binding instructions to regional government officials, seen by Reuters, which provide details on how to prioritise power allocation. It also urges them to meet with local authorities and businesses to make sure all emergency power generators are working.

Despite that, a situation could arise in the deep of winter when ‘load shedding’ measures would need to be implemented, meaning turning off power supply though for no more than 2 hours at a time and to no more than 4 million people at once.

Citizens themselves are also encouraged to subscribe to the Ecowatt app service to be alerted by SMS or e-mail on the monecowatt.fr website and thus monitor the level of consumption in real-time and anticipate any power cuts. The authorities have described it as a service similar to the weather forecast, but for electricity.

Every household and community can help with eco-gestures

In the event of a red alert, network users will be invited to voluntarily reduce their electricity consumption by the so-called ‘eco-gestures’ in order to avoid load-shedding operations. That means that if a power overload is previewed then residents can resort to an energy-consumption reduction in their homes.

The authorities recommend the following acts as eco-gestures:

• Reduce heating temperature;
• Limit or reduce lighting;
• Turn off unnecessary displays and lights;
• Shift certain domestic uses (dishwasher, washing machine, etc.);
• Moderate the use of cooking appliances.

And if a power cut cannot be avoided then citizens will get a notification in order to prepare for the down period.