here is how Toulouse acts to avoid them
During the last city council, the elected representatives of Toulouse voted to sign an agreement with RTE to implement concrete energy saving measures. This device, baptized EcoWatt, should make it possible, in the event of an alert, to avoid Power cuts. An initiative motivated by everyone, including the opposition, which regrets however that these are only specific actions, imposed by a risk.
Jean-Luc Moudenc, mayor of Toulouse, signed an agreement on December 21 with the operator of the RTE electricity network aimed at prevent power outages. Voted during the municipal council on December 16, this initiative engages the community in the EcoWatt device. “It was designed to allow everyone to act on their electricity consumption in order to anticipate the risks of winter cuts. To do this, citizens are invited to subscribe to alert messages by SMS and communities to promote and apply safeguard measures on their perimeter, ”explains the Town Hall.
What is EcoWatt?
The charter just signed by the City of Toulouse commits it to a process of energy sobriety in the event of overconsumption of electricity. Indeed, the EcoWatt system allows RTE to know, in real time, the level of electricity available to supply consumers. In this way, the network manager can predict a peak in use and therefore possible cuts. It then sends a pre-alert, orange or red, on D-4 and a confirmation on D-1, and indicates the periods during which it is necessary to limit consumption.
Upon receipt of this message, the community implemented concrete actions, precisely defined by the charter, to significantly reduce its electricity needs. “Measures that could be improved depending on the situation”, specifies Françoise Ampoulange, municipal councilor in charge of the energy renovation of municipal buildings.
What measures should Toulouse City Hall take in the event of an alert?
In the event of orange or red EcoWatt alerts issued by RTE, the Civil Security and Major Risks Department of Toulouse City Hall will launch the actions taken by the charter to avoid power cuts, namely:
- Reduce the consumption of certain equipment such as swimming pools, sports and cultural equipment,
- Postpone the launch of electricity-intensive activities such as technical workshops,
- Shift the charging of electric vehicles, for example by blocking access to charging stations,
- Anticipate the rise in heating temperature in buildings, for example by heating before 8 a.m.,
- Lower the temperature by at least an additional 1°C. As a reminder, the maximum regulatory heating temperature is 19°C,
- Anticipate, from 6 p.m., the drop in temperature and ventilation “in reduced night mode” for unoccupied premises at the end of the day,
- Postpone, as far as possible, the switching on of the air renewal units,
- Significantly reduce the heating of unoccupied premises,
- Reduce the intensity of the lighting in the premises,
- Reduce the intensity of public lighting, where possible,
- Turn off building beautification lighting,
- Raise public awareness of eco-gestures,
- Relay warning signals to the population and ecosystems of the territory.
The Town Hall specifies that it will carry out “the partial extinction of the lighting in schools, cultural and sports establishments for activities that allow it, the reinforced extinction of outdoor lighting from 6 p.m. “, in the event of an orange alert and that a red alert would trigger “the early closure at 6 p.m. of certain establishments, the report of activities not
essential (sporting and socio-cultural), the strengthening of telework to avoid travel and tension from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Actions whose ephemeral nature the opposition regrets
If the commitments of the Town Hall are aroused by all the elected officials of Toulouse, including by the opposition, the latter nevertheless notes the ephemeral nature of the actions proposed. “We appreciate the anticipation of potential cuts, but it is unfortunate that we have to be up against the wall to find short-term solutions”, notes Aymeric Deheurles, municipal councilor of the group Alternative Citoyenne (AMC).
A vision shared by Hélène Magdo, who believes that these are not ecological decisions but rather actions made mandatory by the current energy situation. It thus asks the municipal majority to commit more sustainably by thinking about long-term solutions, “such as the construction of buildings equipped with solar panels and batteries to ensure their electricity consumption”.
In summary, if the opposition can only be satisfied with actions aimed at energy sobriety, it would like the Town Hall to become more proactive in this area with the development of a plan accelerating the reduction of energy consumption and developing the renewable energies on its territory. Similarly, the elected representatives of the minority urge those of the majority to lead by example: “How to explain to Toulouse residents that they must make an effort, reduce their consumption, when they see, for example, totally useless digital advertising screens lit in the ‘public space ? asks Maxime Le Texier. And Hélène Magdo adds: “A municipal decree is needed to limit this light pollution”.
For the majority, the opposition is in the wrong fight
But according to Jean-Luc Moudenc’s Aimer Toulouse group, the opposition “is fixing 66 digital panels which represents only a tiny part of consumption”. Thierry Sentous, municipal councilor in charge of street furniture explains: “If we want to reduce our electricity needs, it is all street furniture that must be taken into account. And that’s what we are doing, which allows us to announce that we will reduce our consumption by 49% as soon as the new street furniture is installed, that is to say in 2023. ”
The idea being to focus the effort on energy-intensive items and not on structures whose electricity consumption remains marginal. Political decisions, the majority of which emphasize concrete results and sustainability.