Electricity emergency:Possible cuts winter 2022/2023

Seems we’ll be given 3 days’ notice…

Hmmmm not good for 2nd home owners.

Or for us that work from home, needing internet and computers also 2-3 screens!

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Indeed.

It’s not yet clear if the UK will go down the same route, I’m hoping not but have bought a generator just in case.

Not terribly eco friendly as a full tank (15l) only lasts 8 hours.

If the worst comes to it, I’ll probably get an inverter and run the computers off car batteries.

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I work from home too. I can definitely make do with just the laptop for a few hours, but the potential lack of internet will be a bigger challenge for me.

My understanding of the article is that any blackouts will be for no more than two hours in any one place, and that they will only be likely to take place between 8am and 1pm, or 6pm and 8pm, IF the weather is very cold or there is a problem with supply from other countries.
Three days in advance an ECO WATT ROUGE message will be sent out detailing which Departements will be affected. Then, from 5pm on the evening before the day in question, it will be possible to enter a specific address onto a joint Enedis / RTE website to find out exactly when the blackout will take place. In this way it is hoped that no-one will be taken by surprise.
If the EcoWatt Rouge warning has the desired effect of folks voluntarily reducing consumption, then it may well not be necessary to implement the power cuts.

Where it is anticipated that a school will loose power during the morning, then that school will be closed for the morning in question.

Hospitals, Gendarmeries, Fire Stations and some industrial sites, have been placed on a ‘Protected’ list, so if you happen to be connected to the same supply circuit as one of those places, then there will be no cuts at all.
There will also be no cuts at all if you happen to be on the same supply circuit as one of the 3,800 people who are known to rely on electrical medical equipment in their own homes.
The government seem to think that this will mean that about 40% of the population will never suffer any cuts at all.

In an emergency situation during a power cut it is advised to call 112.
A map (presumably online) is being created that will show where mobile phone signals will not be available due to phone mast power cuts.

Taking all of the above into consideration I reckon that we should all be able to manage provided that we make appropriate preparations.

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A friend of ours has invested in a Jackery system to tide over possible outages. She works from home in both the UK & France & this kit is enough to run her laptop & internet hardware. As you can see there are various size options.

I’ve seen it first hand & it seems very well made & user friendly. It can be charged from the PV panels or mains.

It’s portability means it goes wherever she is - not really something you’d want to do with a small generator (which wouldn’t be practical in her UK flat).

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I did actually start looking at the jackery, but now looking at bluetti and ecoflow manufacturers as they appear to offer more for less, meanwhile quality remains good. I think jackery were one of the first to be producing these powerpacks, but think others have now gone beyond them - in particular, by offering substantially improved number of charge cycles!

I subscribe to a couple of river cruising YT channels and the Ecoflow is highly regraded by the river/canal boating community.

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By what means do these arrive? Apart from missing my favourite programme at the moment, I think I can manage without for 2 hours, might even fire up the cheminee now that the sweeps have done their work. :joy:

At the moment the EDF & Moi app shows the previsions for the next 3/4 days. Today it is showing Etat normal for 1-4 December. If you don’t use the app maybe those of us that do could keep you uodated.

A big marine/leisure ACM battery will serve you well in such an application.

If everyone reduces their use of electricity (as much as possible), these cuts might not even occur.

but… just in case… there have to be measures-in- hand for warning Prefectures etc.
and The Public will not be left in the dark… we will all know when the lights might go out… :wink: well in advance… :crossed_fingers: :+1:

It seems the government is relying on the insane prices in the UK to keep usage down.

Because they seem to be doing ****-all else to avert the need for power cuts.

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Its amazing how much we rely on electricity. During previous power cuts I automatically go for the electric kettle or the phone landline and then realise no good. Same with saying I will go to bed to keep warm and read, but then no light available to do so and same with TV, go automatically to it and wonder why it dosn’t come on. I have been buying batteries every time I go shopping for torches, they may run out also if the cuts do come. I wasn’t paying close attention but I am sure Giles Bouleau said last night that consumption was down a good 6% last month compared to last year at the same time.

Absolutely - at least battery technology is much better than it used to be and LED light sources much more efficient than incandescent bulbs so portable lighting is both much brighter and longer lasting than it used to be. Also portable electronic devices can be used as long as there is charge in the battery and a mobile signal - use your phone as a WiFi hot spot if necessary.

We have a fireplace - not sure of the wisdom of using it at the moment. On the one hand the chimney hasn’t been swept this year (or last), on the other we’ve only lit a fire once that I recall since it was  swept - at the moment, best not used I suspect but there’s no way we’ll get a sweep at short notice this time of year, so if push comes to shove…

Get the EcoWatt app, that will also get notifications of cuts (if/when they arrive).

You can sign up to receive the EcoWatt alerts by e-mail on the EDF website.

Yes best get it swept before using again. Where I lived previously, come the fire season, so many chimneys caught fire because they had nests down them that could not have been discovered and even with “hats” to prevent the rain, the birds still got in and built them. Have you tried local plumbers, many were also doing ramonage when I had to have mine done for the house sale in february and a local bloke charged me €70 plus he had all the right gear as well and did not need to get up on the roof.