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MONEY

French postal service hit by nationwide IT outage

France's national postal service, La Poste, was experiencing a nationwide IT outage on Tuesday, according to reports by French media, with customers unable to send or receive parcels.

Published: 16 July 2024 16:33 CEST
French postal service hit by nationwide IT outage
This photograph shows a logo of La Poste on a French post office window in Paris, on January 10, 2024. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)

The French postal service, as well as the parcel delivery subsidiary, Colissimo, began experiencing the IT outage on Monday.

As of Tuesday, BFMTV reported that La Poste’s services were impacted at random, but the automated terminals that allow customers to weigh, frank and send letters and parcels had been the most affected.

Post offices in the south also appear to have been badly affected.

The situation was “gradually returning to normal”, a spokesperson told the French TV network on Tuesday.

As a result, agents cannot access data concerning letters and parcels sent via Colissimo, making it impossible for customers to collect or send them. So far, BFMTV reported that banking services and ATMs are not affected.

“I went to the Poste Magnan in Nice on Monday to collect a parcel. The clerk told me that they could not give it to me because its withdrawal is conditional on an electronic signature and that there is a technological breakdown.

“She couldn’t tell me how long it was going to last so I went back again today (Tuesday), and it’s still down,” Christiane, a customer told regional news outlet Nice-Ouest.

The website Downdetector, which tracks website blackouts, flagged several complaints about services being down in the last 24 hours. There were also a number of posts on social media pointing to the issue.

According to the spokesperson, a cyber attack had been ruled out. 

As of Tuesday, it was still unclear when services would be fully functional again.

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ENERGY

French electricity bills set to decrease from February 2025

France's energy commission has announced it will delay the revaluation of electricity prices until February 2025, when it expects the cost of electricity to decrease.

Published: 12 September 2024 10:50 CEST
French electricity bills set to decrease from February 2025

The French energy regulatory commission (commission de régulation de l’énergie, CRE) had planned to re-evaluate electricity prices for the regulated (flat-rate) tariff plan in August 2024, but this has been postponed to February 2025, according to French daily SudOuest.

The revaluation in February will take into consideration the rise of transmission costs, as well as a predicted decrease in electricity prices, CRE announced on Wednesday.

As a result, the higher transmission costs are expected to be offset by decreased electricity prices, leading what CRE predicts will be a 10 percent total decrease in bills for those on the regulated electricity tariff plan.

What does this mean for household bills?

This change will affect people who are on the ‘regulated rate’ plan, also called the tarif bleu. According to SudOuest, there are 22.4 million of these contracts, including both households and small businesses.

According to Ouest France, this means that for the average French household – who sees annual electricity bills of €2,000 – they would save at least €200.

There are other types of electricity contracts in France who are not included in this change – for example, the peak hours contract, which differs from the flat-rate because it offers a lower price per kilowatt during off-peak hours, and a more expensive one during peak hours.

The 17.5 million contracts (which include households and businesses) that are not on the regulated tariff plan will see an increase in transmission prices from November 1st.

Why the delay?

The revaluation was initially planned for August, but it was pushed back to February at the behest of the French government, SudOuest reported.

The French government, who was at the time concerned with an ongoing political crisis after snap parliamentary elections, was reportedly concerned that swinging prices would be confusing for consumers.

In 2021-2022, amid inflation, post-Covid recovery and the war in Ukraine, electricity prices soared by more than 43 percent, despite a price shield the government put into place.

Therefore, the French government asked that CRE make a decision that “takes into account their recommendations for stability”.

CRE thus decided that they would put the annual transmission update into force on November 1st, but “in the interest of price stability and clarity” they promised to postpone the increase for households and very small businesses on regulated tarif plans until February, when the fall in electricity prices is expected to occur.

How is the electricity price calculated?

In France, in addition to the type of plan you have, the final price of electricity depends on three components – transmission costs (or the tarif réseau), the price of the electricity itself (which includes marketing costs, the supplier margin and energy supply costs), and the tax applied.

As for the February revaluation, it is the tarif réseau component that will increase by one percent from February 1st, but the CRE believes this will be absorbed in an overall decline in the price of electricity, leading to 10 percent drop in flat-rate bills.

The price of electricity still remains higher than pre-2021, when the cost was between €40-50 per megawatt hour (MWh).

Prices are currently stabilising around €60-70 per MWh, which is far lower than peaks seen in 2022.

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