how to pay less for electricity?

Encourage the French to reduce their electricity consumption to avoid shortages. In order to achieve this, the government wants to bring up to date subscriptions that were once forgotten: load shedding contracts. Jean-Sébastien Heudebourg chose one of these offers last February. From now on, the price of its electricity varies according to the calendar. “I will try to program the radiators so that they don’t work during peak hours, use the wood stove as much as possible”, he explains. Despite 22 red days of constraints, he saved almost 500 euros in six months.

The purpose of these contracts is to reduce consumption in the heart of winter, on days of peak demand. To multiply these still rare offers, the government will now subsidize suppliers. A new tool for RTE which manages the network and also a means of lowering prices but which comes too late for some. “We are in an energy crisis, not since yesterday but for 18 months, and for 18 months we have not done anything. That is the delay. And so today, the markets for energy, electricity are at record levels, prices that we had never seen”, says Thierry Bros, energy expert. With the efforts of households and businesses, the State wishes to be able to reduce French consumption by 5% in the event of an emergency.