France fires up fuel oil plants amid energy crunch

France has brought online fuel oil plants to help ease the strain on its national power system, data published by the country's transmission system operator RTE shows.

Fuel oil is now delivering 0.61 GW, or 0.8% of French power demand, according to the data. Nuclear energy is currently meeting 53.8% of demand, while a further 12.6% is being met with hydropower and 11% by natural gas. Coal is delivering 0.4%, biomass 1.1%, solar 4.7% and wind 1.6%. 

The rest comes from imports, including 10% from Germany.

"When you see fuel oil power plants firing up,, that's the telltale of a grid throwing some of it's very last defences to keep supply and demand balanced," Javier Blas, chief energy correspondent at Bloomberg, commented on social media.