Heat wave in France has led to record summer electricity consumption

Prolonged hot weather in Europe has led to an increase in summer electricity consumption in France to the highest level since 2022. This was reported by Bloomberg on July 15.

"In France, due to the scorching heat, the average demand for electricity from April to mid—July reached the highest level since 2022," the material says.

The heat wave on the European continent has put a strain on the energy systems. In early July, France recorded the hottest day and the warmest night in the history of observations, when the temperature rose above +44 degrees. France's state-owned electric power company EDF has cut power generation at several nuclear reactors due to the river water used for cooling becoming too warm.

Germany also recorded the highest average electricity demand since 2022 for the period from April to mid—July, while Switzerland recorded the highest level since at least 2018.

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France sharply increased gas consumption from reserves in early July amid an abnormal heat wave. As noted on July 14, unlike other European countries, the French spend more than half of the volume pumped into storage every day.

According to the European mortality monitoring system on July 13, at least 10,000 people died in Europe due to the extreme heat that covered the western part of the continent at the end of June. The data was collected from the national mortality statistics of 27 European countries for the week from 22 to 28 June, when the heat reached its peak in France, Spain, the UK and other countries.