Problems and achievements of Ã\x89lectricité de france

When it was established that the incidence of the system maximum demand of Électricité de France was not the same as that of Great Britain the possibility of linking the two countries by a submarine cable was examined. It was unlikely that the two demands would ever coincide because of the different use made by consumers of electrical energy in the two countries and, more conclusively, because of the different generation methods. France is developing the large quantities of water power it has available. In addition to generating about half its electricity from water power France is exploiting the immense quantities of natural gas obtainable from the Pyrénées and more recently the reserves of gas discovered in the Sahara. In Great Britain we lack these ample natural resources so the need for coal and nuclear power in France is not as great as ours. Nevertheless it as important to the French as it is to us to make every endeavour to improve the system load factor, and to this end they have adopted rather intricate tariffs.