Electricity supplies to some French companies could be cut due to energy disruption, minister says

euronews.com:

The French government is working on "load-shedding plans" that could see electricity and gas supplies reduced for some companies over the winter, Economy Minister Bruno le Maire confirmed on Sunday, warning that Russia is highly likely to turn off the tap. 

"Let's prepare for a total cut-off of Russian gas. This is now the most likely option," Le Maire told attendees at the Rencontres Economiques in Aix-en-Provence.

This means that "you also have to prepare load-shedding plans, we are doing it."

"It means looking in a very specific way at each company, each employment area; which are the companies that should reduce their energy consumption and which are the ones that cannot," he told reporters.

Some companies could therefore be asked to "slow down their energy consumption, or even stop their energy consumption for a certain period of time" while it would be "totally impossible" for others to do so without triggering wider industrial repercussions," he explained. 

Preparing these plans, he then told LCI, is "all the more" necessary given France has "an electricity production this year which is particularly low — eight (nuclear) reactors are shut down today — so it is imperative that we put ourselves now, and I mean now, in battle order."

The contingency plans are being developed by Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher with President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne set to "decide in the coming weeks," Le Maire said.

But, he emphasised, "the effort has to be shared between the administration, private individuals and companies" and "sobriety in our behaviour, sobriety in our energy expenditure" will be key.

For the minister, the "credible" scenario of Russia completely cutting off energy supplies to the