There is a risk that France will face outages on some days this winter due to a power shortage, says head of French power grid operator Transport d’Electricité (RTE) Xavier Piechaczyk Thursday, according to Reuters.

”The situation entails risks, but one must not think power cuts are inevitable,” notes Piechaczyk.

The supply situation in France has been under pressure recently, with utility Électricité de France noting an unprecedented number of outages at its nuclear reactors, which has sent nuclear power generation to a 30-year low.

”Today we have 35 gigawatt of available nuclear power as of Dec. 1, the aim is to reach between 40 and 41 on Jan. 1 and to end the month at around 43, compared to a total capacity of 61,” remarks Piechaczyk.

The Jan. 1 target is based on a nuclear maintenance schedule drawn up by EDF, with additional delays already anticipated, writes Reuters.

The French government has sent instructions to regional officials with details on how to prioritize if power allocation proves necessary.

”Any scheduled outages should not affect more than 4 million users simultaneously,” the instructions read, according Reuters.

Moreover, local load shedding measures should not last more than a couple of hours, and these will be announced by RTE at 5 p.m. CET the day before.

There are certain exemptions in the event of a power outage, however. These include hospitals, but not schools, which will close on days when supplies are insufficient.

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