Energy crisis: Romba municipality sacrifices its “Winter Wonder”

In December, when night falls, the towns and villages of the Moselle begin to glow. Moreover, here, more than anywhere else, the tradition of illuminations becomes a form of competition. Among the owners of houses, balconies, and also among the cities, which annually invest thousands of euros in light patterns. In this little game, the town of Rombas, in the middle of the industrial valley of Orne, enjoys a certain reputation. Every year, people come from far and wide to admire the “Winter Feast”, a large luminous and poetic installation, in the town hall square. In total, municipal officials install 600 light patterns every year in this municipality of 10,000 people. Several months of work, usually starting in September.

But this year, 80% of these designs will remain in stock. “Special crisis, special measures”We can read it in the last issue of the municipal bulletin. “It is true, we will touch on a very sentimental issue. Socialist Mayor Lionel Fournier admits. But making this decision was not so difficult. We cannot ask our fellow citizens to reduce energy consumption and at the same time light up the whole city for Christmas. It will not pass psychologically. We must be exemplary. » to maintain “Christmas Mood”However, the mayor decided to keep the “winter magic” and the illuminations near the schools.

Biomass boiler room

With this measure, the municipality of Rombas expects to save 30,000 euros. “This money will go fully into the campaign to replace our public lighting with LEDs, which will switch off after 11pm.– says Lionel Fournier. This will allow us to go faster than expected in terms of energy alertness. » The economic stakes for the municipality are huge. “For public lighting alone, our annual fee will increase from €75,000 to €350,000 in 2023. In total, rising energy prices will cost us between €500,000 and €600,000 over the course of the year. This is colossal, as our operating budget is 11 million euros. I think the public does not yet know what awaits us in the coming months. It will be a tsunami…”

However, Rombas is not the municipality most complained about in this area. This is thanks to what Mr. Fournier calls “Intuition”. “A few years ago I felt that energy was becoming a vulnerable position for local government”, he recalls. Through the local electricity company, the municipality invested 6.7 million euros to purchase and operate the transformer from ArcelorMittal to save on expensive bills from Enedis, the subsidiary of EDF, which is responsible for managing the electricity distribution network.