France in Focus

Starting on 1 November, changes to the peak/off-peak system, which allows consumers to pay reduced rates for electricity at certain times of the day or night, will impact the daily lives of millions of consumers. There are two main reasons for revising the system. The first is to take ‘societal changes’ into account. ‘Peak consumption patterns have changed. For example, there is now higher consumption in the morning, with a plateau lasting until 10 a.m.,’ explains Thierry Sudret, Director of Operations and Systems at Enedis.

There is also more consumption later in the evening, especially in summer. The second reason is the evolution of electricity production methods, particularly the growing share of solar power. Photovoltaic electricity is available during the day, hence the idea of positioning more off-peak hours when the sun is shining.

Read more about it in the « Ouest-France ».

Plenty of detail there, but quite honestly, I'm none the wiser. We are already on the HP/HC tariff and have a Linky box. What I want to know is when our hours would change, and what they would be. So far we have not received any notification of changes.

The gap between the cost of HP and HC is closing and we are now considering switching to Tempo.

@ Blaze: at present Enedis is only providing general guidance on how this will affect their customers who have such an HP/HC subscription. The rule of eight off-peak hours per day remains unchanged, but their distribution will change from 1 November 2025, gradually for all customers. No more 8 consecutive hours only at night for most households. From now on, in most cases, your off-peak hours will be spread over two periods. Or no power at all.

In other words: on verra.

In Scotland we had electric storage heaters so cheaper night electricity was ideal for charging them up. But they don't seem to have caught on in France - I have seen them here, a long time ago, I wonder why they weren't popular. Perhaps they weren't particularly efficient. We had the old big box type in Scotland and they were terrific, much better than the newer, slimmer ones ....

The electricity providers will notify customers of HP/HC changes about a month before they become effective.
So they are likely to have to do that twice a year from now on.

One upon a time those accumulateurs were quite popular in France when the leccy was at an all time low compared with other countries in the EU. In the Morvan and the GrandEst the made in Germany Olsberg types were the modern answer to the cheminée. But: you need a lot of puissance souscrite. Or a clever system of délestage (load shedding) to feed these power hungry animals from a French 9 kVA or 12 kVA supply in single-phase. More power needed, go to triphasé. After demolition a look at what was inside: huge briques refractaires from a 4500 W accumulateur, about 150 kg, not luggable....

We had Tempo years ago in our last house, but it required an 18/kW abonnement and on redd days I had to wear the contents of my wardrrobe. It might be different in the Tropic of Britanny, but for someone as frileuse as me in the frozen wastes of Limousin it's hell.
I'm persuading OH that we have to use the shutters more and earmark a certain percentage of our miserable pensions to heating.

OH had a look at our electricity bill on line and it gives a lot of detail on consumption. Our bill has gone down and as we've dropped from a 9kw to 6kw abonnement, we think we'll probably stick to HP/HC.

Tempo is undoubtedly a money-saver, but needs careful control. The day tariff on red days is very very expensive, so one needs to ensure the electric water heater is on a timer for the HC hours which has a normal tariff. We switch off ALL electric users during a red day, well, those heavy users, not the internet or clocks and used a gas hobb for cooking and wood burner for day heating. The kettle sits on top of the wood burner for a constant supply of tea and other hot water uses. One must be prepared for 5 days continuous red days, however weekends and holidays are never red days.

Polarengineer wrote: ↑Fri Oct 24, 2025 11:11 am Tempo is undoubtedly a money-saver, but needs careful control. The day tariff on red days is very very expensive, so one needs to ensure the electric water heater is on a timer for the HC hours which has a normal tariff. We switch off ALL electric users during a red day, well, those heavy users, not the internet or clocks and used a gas hobb for cooking and wood burner for day heating. The kettle sits on top of the wood burner for a constant supply of tea and other hot water uses. One must be prepared for 5 days continuous red days, however weekends and holidays are never red days.

Thats pretty much what we do, although probably not quite as frugal as you, Jane tends to do big dishes on the weekend, which can be heated up on the wood burner, stews, curries, tajine etc, she is vegetarian so not quite the same concern as meat dishes. It has got more difficult since we moved from a gas hob to induction, but it is pretty efficient so running for short times, doesn't rack the bill up too much, likewise we have a heat pump to supplement our heating, even that is not too bad to give a bit of background heat, as the wood burner is only in the main living kitchen area.

We gain in the summer, especially the last few years as we are using the A/C much more

We have a small house, and although in Herault in the south, and we are at 450m, it is suprising, the temperatures are not much different to southern england, between november and march.
Dave