Electricity consumption in France leaps 13% on Monday compared to the same date a year ago, according to ECO2MIX data from the high -voltage electrical network manager RTE, while the heat wave is installed throughout France.
57 GW at 1 p.m. June 30
At 1:00 p.m. Monday, the power call on the network linked to electricity consumption in France was 57 gigawatts (GW) against just under 51 GW a year ago. It was increasing since Saturday and Sunday, respectively 4.6% and 7.8% over a year, even if it remains largely below winter consumption, more important due to heating needs.
This increase in electricity consumption comes while the heat wave on France and southern Europe is increasingly intense, now with temperatures between 30 and 35 ° C on a large part of France. A year ago a year ago, the beginning of summer had been “gloomy”, according to Météo France.
The phenomenon is not entirely due to an increased appeal to air conditioning or fans to refresh itself, but can also be explained by the greater electricity needs linked to the industry or to the tertiary compared to last year.
Impact of air conditioning
In his summer 2024 report, RTE underlined that “the impact of air conditioning on consumption (electricity) was estimated between 700 and 1,100 MW (0.7 to 1.1 GW, editor’s note) by additional degree, depending on the temperature conditions encountered at national level”.
“This effect had led, under exceptionally hot weather conditions, to a maximum summer consumption of 59.1 GW on July 25, 2019 at 1:00 pm,” added RTE.
ENGIE HOME SERVICES, specializing in energy equipment, has indicated to AFP to have seen its number of quotes for air conditioning installations increased in recent weeks.
The group recorded 8,374 quote requests in June 2025 against 2,931 last June. The figures for the number of facilities will be available at the end of the summer. “It’s huge, we only do that,” an air conditioning installer in the Montpellier region told AFP.
Individual equipment rate
According to the International Energy Agency, air conditioning is one of the engines of the growth of electricity demand worldwide due to the multiplication of heat waves.
In France, the rate of equipment of individuals in air conditioning increases, at 25% in 2020, according to the latest available figures from ADEME.
“You have to have an effective air conditioning,” said the Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher on BFMTV. “If you want to have a good combination, not too much electricity expenses and sleep properly, you have to put it in a room and this is particularly true for vulnerable people”.
On the production side, the current heat wave forced EDF to stop on Sunday evening the 1 reactor 1 of the Golfech nuclear power plant (Tarn-et-Garonne). “The climatic conditions of the past few days have led to a large rise in the temperature of the Garonne which is expected to reach 28 ° C on Monday, June 30, 2025,” said EDF.
The power plant takes water from the Garonne to in particular ensure the cooling of its production units before returning it “largely from the river at a slightly higher temperature (+0.2 ° C on average)”, added the group. This device must therefore be suspended, via a stop of the activity of the site, in the event of too high temperature of the river water.
