France steps up reassurances that it can avoid power cuts as cold weather bites

France's Finance Minister and a leading executive at the country's RTE grid system stepped up messages of reassurance on Wednesday that the country can avoid power cuts this winter, even as a spell of freezing cold weather swept across Europe.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said France was on track to get 45 nuclear reactors on line by January, up from 41 at present, which should help it avoid electricity cuts.

"We are on the right track regarding avoiding electricity cuts," Le Maire told C News TV.

RTE executive Thomas Veyrenc told the French Senate that while the situation remained under "high vigilance", power cuts could be avoided given steps taken to encourage people to cut down on their consumption of energy.

France has been on alert for possible rolling blackouts as several reactors in its nuclear fleet, run by power giant EDF, have been shut down for maintenance and corrosion repairs.

Long a net exporter of electricity to European neighbours, the country has turned into a net importer this year, though Veyrenc said he did not expect that to also be the case next year.

RTE cut its power exports to Britain by around half for an hour on Monday morning, and imported more from Belgium and Italy as it faced tight power supplies amid freezing cold temperatures.

Veyrenc said EDF's capacity was expected to rise to 41-42 GW at the start of January. EDF newly appointed chief executive, Luc Remont, told the same Senate hearing that he wanted to ramp up capacity to 45 GW next month.