Power outages: ventilated patients not ‘priority customers’

Nobody will be spared. Including patients with “high life risk”. This was announced on Monday evening by Enedis spokesman Laurent Merik on BFMTV. “People at high risk in life are not among the priority customers identified by the prefectures,” a spokesman said of the blackouts due this winter.

A spokesperson explains on BFMTV that patients on artificial respirators will be “non-priority” and “possibly removed.” They are encouraged to report this to their regional health agency (ARS), who will list them along with Enedis. The company should contact them two days before the cut: “We will call them, we will send them an SMS, an email to see if they have taken precautions. »

These high-risk patients can then be “assisted” and transported “to a place where there will be no relief, so that they can be given the greatest guarantee.”

The Inter-Ministerial Crisis Unit is working on the hypothesis of six to ten power outages during the winter to compensate for the drop in electricity production. The French will be alerted by a red EcoWatt signal sent by RTE operating the high and very high voltage lines. The risk is “a few days of red EcoWatt throughout the winter,” warned Xavier Pechaczyk, chairman of the RTE executive board at Franceinfo on Thursday, even if it “mostly” depends on the weather.

In case of high voltage, RTE will send a red EcoWatt signal three days before it starts. If consumption drops and neighboring countries can supply electricity, power outages can be avoided. If this is not enough, the load shedding will be confirmed the day before the next day as a “last resort”.

Power outages will be “inevitable unless power consumption decreases” during the peak times of the day (8 am to 1 pm and 6 pm to 8 pm), warns RTE, which predicts January will be the most dangerous month.

These targeted cuts will last no more than two consecutive hours in some departments. Task: to avoid a “blackout”, a general breakdown with much more serious consequences.