Electric heating, a grenade unpinned for UFC-Que-Choisir

8 million households, or 30% of the population, are heated by electricity, which in itself constitutes a French specificity. Added to the fact that this mode of heating concerns a majority of poorly insulated homes built before 1975, this significant weight of electric heating makes French electricity consumption very sensitive to temperature variations. Thus, in winter, one degree less leads to a consumption surplus of 2,300 megawatts (MW).

An oversized production and distribution system

In the absence of a storage solution, to be able to absorb these consumption points which only occur a few hours a year, the whole system is oversized (twice as much according to UFC-Que Choisir), in terms of of production (nuclear or of fossil origin) as of distribution, accuses the association. And the additional cost corresponding to this oversizing is absorbed by all consumers, not just those who heat themselves with electricity. On the contrary, the latter benefit, according to UFC-Que Choisir, from a subscription reduced to kWh less expensive than their compatriots who have opted for other heating methods.

Soon different tariffs according to the heating methods?

But the law on the New Organization of Electricity Markets (NOME) adopted at the end of 2010, provides that by 2015 regulated energy tariffs can be set in such a way as to encourage consumers to reduce their consumption during periods where overall consumption is highest. In other words, the electricity tariff structure could take into account the mode of heating.

According to the association's calculations, if the additional costs linked to electric heating were fully paid by its users, the latter could pay from 12% to 80% (taking into account the cost of renewing production capacities) more than for the other modes of heating. Which makes its president Alain Bazot say that this is a “unpinned grenade that will blow up the bills of households using electric heating”.

Promoting the thermal renovation of housing

UFC-Que Choisir recommends a whole arsenal of measures to promote the thermal renovation of the most poorly insulated housing and occupied by the most precarious households, such as a bonus/malus system on property tax depending on the type of work carried out. , or even a third-party investor scheme to support households with limited investment capacity. Already 9 million French people are in a situation of fuel poverty, and devote more than 10% of their budget to their energy bill. And this can only get worse as a Senate study promises 50% increases in the price of electricity by 2020.

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