Europe 1 with AFP 5:59 p.m., March 4, 2023
On Saturday, EDF agents, on renewable strike against the pension reform project, multiplied the actions.
Since Friday evening, production has been reduced by nearly 5,000 megawatts, the equivalent of five nuclear reactors.
These drops in production generally do not lead to cuts for customers.
EDF agents, on a renewable strike against the pension reform project, multiplied their actions on Saturday, bringing production cuts to nearly 5,000 megawatts since Friday evening, the equivalent of five nuclear reactors, a-t- we learned from the CGT and EDF.
This renewable strike, a prelude to the day of "shutdown" of France scheduled for March 7, began on Friday afternoon among energy companies, before the examination started on Saturday in the Senate of article 1 on the abolition of special pension schemes.
According to Fabrice Coudour, federal secretary of the CGT Energie joined by AFP, "the first network security messages have been reached and our goal is not to affect users".
In other words, the strikers intend not to increase the declines as long as these warning messages on the balance between production and consumption are issued by the network regulator.
"But the question of going further will arise next week", he warned, "we will be capable of anything".
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Putting "energy sobriety" of "very many" road radars
The four nuclear production units of Tricastin (Drôme) were affected on Saturday by load drops of around 2,000 megawatts, according to the EDF website, as well as unit 2 of Flamanville (Manche).
At midday, the 5th unit of Gravelines (North), Paluel 2 (Seine-et-Maritime) and the first section of Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux (Loir-et-Cher) were in turn affected, erasing nearly 2,000 MW of production.
Saint-Alban 2 (Isère), which experienced a drop in production linked to the strike overnight, returned to the network on Saturday, according to EDF.
On the gas side, section 6 of the Martigues thermal power plant (Bouches-du-Rhône) "is still stopped by the striking agents", causing a drop of "465 megawatts withdrawn from the network", according to the CGT.
The union also demanded an "energy sobriety" of "very many" road cameras in "Mayenne, Bouches du Rhône, Alpes de Haute Provence, Gironde ...".
Clearly, these radars no longer work.
"We do not say where like that we maintain prevention, but we remove the sanction", justified Fabrice Coudour.
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No interruption for customers
The strike movement was to begin on Monday, on the eve of the national day of mobilization at the call of the unions, but the electricians and gas workers advanced their actions on learning that the Senate was starting this weekend the debates on the suppression of the special diets.
The sector fears that its special regime will disappear and with it, in the long term, its protective status intended to compensate in particular for the time constraints of the profession.
These reductions in production, closely supervised by the operator of the high and very high voltage line network RTE, generally do not lead to outages for customers.
“We have just called for generalization, including in hydraulics,” Sébastien Ménesplier, secretary general of CGT Energie, told AFP on Friday evening.
"It will be organized today, tonight and tomorrow Saturday" and "the movement will last" at least until the 7th and at the most until winning", he said.