French Grid Manager Asks Users to Reduce Consumption on Monday

(Bloomberg) --

France's electricity grid manager asked businesses and households to cut consumption as a cold snap pushes demand higher at a time time when around half of the country's nuclear reactors are offline. 

RTE requested that households run dishwashers and washing machines over the weekend rather than on Monday to help reduce the load and requested that businesses moderate electricity usage between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. local time that day, according to a statement on the company's website. It said it doesn't expect any power cuts.

Power consumption could reach 73,000 megawatts on Monday at around 9 a.m., RTE said. Generation will only reach around 65,000 megawatts, though France should be able to import as much as 11,000 megawatts, it said. 

Countries across Europe are struggling to navigate an energy crisis that's seen soaring bills for households and pressure on governments to address the rising cost of living. That's been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine as nations look to reduce dependency on Russia for gas supplies.

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