The president of the Energy Regulation Commission (CRE), Jean-François Carenco, calls on all French people on Monday to save energy now. He considers that it is a matter of taking into account the risk of supply tensions next winter.
In an interview with the daily Les Echos, the boss of the energy regulator judges that the difficulties in gas supply caused by the war in Ukraine and the unprecedented drop in EDF’s nuclear electricity production will necessarily lead to difficulties. in the winter of 2022 if nothing is done.
“Turn down the heating, air conditioning, lights”
“We must save gas and electricity in France right now, otherwise it could go wrong next winter,” he insists, inviting everyone to make an effort, “industrialists, the tertiary sector, public buildings but also each of us, whether by lowering the heating, the air conditioning, the lights”. “There is an emergency and everyone must do it. »
The President of CRE also calls for the removal of administrative obstacles in order to accelerate the deployment of a floating LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) as well as simplifying administrative and litigation procedures concerning renewable energies. “There is an urgent need to accelerate. The crisis we are going through must make it possible to understand that the collective interest takes precedence over the individual interest”, judges Jean-François Carenco.
The war in Ukraine has caused a significant increase in the price of hydrocarbons and raises the question of the European continent’s dependence on natural gas from Russia. In France, energy production is affected by the shutdown of several nuclear reactors after the discovery of corrosion cracks on safety systems. Consequently, according to the CRE, the production of nuclear electricity has reached levels equivalent to the production of 1991, which were particularly low.