According to an estimate by RTE, the body responsible for distributing electricity in the country, the French have made savings thanks to higher than usual seasonal temperatures.
Faced with rising energy costs, the time has come for energy sobriety for the French. Pushed towards this horizon by a government communication campaign, the latter have lowered their consumption in recent weeks. RTE, the company which distributes electricity in the country and which makes it possible to follow weekly expenses, has placed the coming winter “under strong vigilance“. And regularly publishes figures that allow trends to be monitored.
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According to the latest figures from RTE published on Tuesday, electricity consumption in France is down 6.8%, for a month, compared to previous years (2014-2019), excluding the health crisis. Period during which the French took advantage of it more than usual. Over one week, it even decreased by 7.6%. According to RTE, “The decline in electricity consumption is mainly driven by industry, in a context of rising electricity prices”. Over the last 30 days, it’s quite noticeable. Where industrial companies used 4564 GWh at the same period in 2021, they only rose to 3985 GWh in October.
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In gross consumption – before taking into account the weather and calendar impact – the drop in recent weeks has reached 12.9%. The organization explains this sharp fall in particular by the “unprecedented heat wave observed in October» : “Temperatures gradually moved closer to normal for the season from the beginning of November, still remaining above normal, on average, over the past week.RTE also specifies that electricity consumption at normal temperatures was rather stable in the first half of 2022. Before experiencing a decline since September – a trend which continued until November.
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