France may be at risk of ‘some days’ of power cuts this winter: grid operator

France may face “some days” this winter when insufficient electricity supply could mean power cuts, the head of French power grid operator RTE said on Thursday, as the government briefed local authorities on how to manage any possible outages.

“The situation entails risks, but one must not think power cuts are inevitable,” Xavier Piechaczyk told France Info radio.

Piechaczyk stuck with the watchdog’s last supply forecast, which had highlighted risks of shortages in January.

“Today we have 35 gigawatt of available nuclear power as of Dec. 1, the aim is to reach between 40 and 41 on Jan. 1 and to end the month at around 43, compared to a total capacity of 61.”