France Warns of Power Outages in January to Save Energy

The French government has warned that power outages could return to the country in January, urging the population to reduce consumption during the winter and seeking to offset problems with its nuclear reactors with imports from neighboring countries.

"Since we rule out the risk of a complete blackout, we are preparing all scenarios to face all situations," government spokesman Olivier Ferrand told BMFTV and RMC media outlets.

The Spanish newspaper "La Pangordia" said that in 2021, nuclear energy guaranteed 69% of the electricity production of the second largest economy in the European Union (EU), but at the moment, about half of its 56 reactors have been shut down due to controls, after corrosion problems were discovered.

To ultimately avoid outages, electric transport company RTE noted that France "will import a lot of electricity this winter" from its neighbors Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, and other countries.