Voluntary power outages, is it the return of home schooling?

Did you miss homeschooling? Bad news, you may have to go back. To control the current energy crisis and relieve the electricity grid, the authorities are considering occasional load shedding. Schools will not be spared from these cuts and affected students will be asked to stay home during blackout hours.

Understand the energy crisis and the proposed protocol

France has a nuclear fleet of 56 reactors, responsible for producing 70% of the territory’s electricity. In October 2021, corrosion was discovered on the emergency cooling system pipes of two of these reactors. This discovery led to the closure of 26 other sites as a safety measure and today, 25 are still inactive.

Hydraulic production decreased by 23.1% due to the drought and importing gas is not a sufficient alternative due to its current scarcity and price. The electrical resources available may not be sufficient to meet the needs of the population, especially if the winter is cold.

In the event of high consumption, the electricity grid risks overvoltages. The government therefore plans to carry out load shedding, i.e. cuts in certain areas during peak hours, i.e. between 8:00 and 13:00 and between 18:00 and 20:00.

School is not a priority and will be affected by the cuts

Priority facilities such as hospitals, police stations and prisons will continue to be supplied with electricity no matter what. This is not the case with schools. Since they cannot guarantee correct reception conditions with heating and light, they will have to close their doors on the mornings of the cut-off.

The situation is reminiscent of the COVID crisis and is likely to raise the same issues. Notified the day before for the next day by email and software pronote, parents will have to organize themselves to find childcare solutions, sometimes at the risk of their income. The question of social inequalities also arises (again and always): when some families manage to compensate for the hours lost, others will pay dearly for these school shortcomings.

The government wants to be reassuring and promises that load relief will not affect the same factory more than three times a winter and that children whose parents have priority jobs will be accommodated in other factories. Authorities are also calling for energy sobriety so they don’t have to come to that. Hoping that the message is heard by all.

Image one photo credit: getty images