9/17/2022
RawNews1st/ Tech – It’s December in Europe, and the temperature is dropping. People have the heating on as they cook dinner, run the washing machine, watch television.
But the French grid operator, like counterparts elsewhere on the continent, is running out of options to keep the lights on.
The utility has issued a “red” alert, meaning supplies are at their limit.
It’s already cut off some big industrial users and reduced voltage, and even sent out a mass request to households to curb their electricity usage.
Many comply, but it’s crunch time. The operator needs to take the drastic step of shutting down power in some places to avoid a total collapse of the system.
It’s a dramatic scenario, but one that governments across Europe are preparing for as the energy squeeze that’s gripped the continent gets worse with each passing week.
On Wednesday, France’s Reseau de Transport d’Electricite said that it will probably have to ask the country to cut consumption several times this winter to avoid rolling blackouts. Finland also ramped up its warnings about outages.
There are plenty of recent precedents. Texas’s grid went down in 2021 during cold weather, leaving millions without power for days. California came close to such a situation this month during extreme heat.
South Africa is no stranger to rolling blackouts, largely due to years of underinvestment and maintenance neglect.
They’re scheduled in different areas at specific times when state company Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. can’t guarantee enough power.
While residents there are experienced in getting on with daily life, the interruptions can be highly disruptive, paralyzing appliances, shutting off wi-fi and disabling traffic signals.
For Europe, much will hinge on the weather over the coming months. Small swings in temperature can radically change power needs.
In France, a 1-degree Celsius drop typically boosts power demand by about 2,400 megawatts, the output of about two of its 56 nuclear reactors.
Note: The largest blackout in history?
More than 50 million people in Ontario and the northeastern United States experienced the largest power outage in the history of North America on August 14, 2003.
© CopyRights RawNews1st
Make sure you like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/RawNews1st/
