(Bloomberg) -- France unveiled a series of measures, including subsidies for home thermostats and restrictions on store lighting hours, to ensure energy consumption maintains its downward trend.

The steps supplement last year’s sweeping plan to cut heating and power use in the public and private sectors, after Russia squeezed gas deliveries to Europe and French nuclear reactors suffered prolonged outages. While energy prices have declined from last year’s record, the region is still struggling with elevated power bills, as it steps up the fight against climate change.  

France’s combined consumption of power and natural gas, excluding weather effects, has dropped by about 12% from pre-crisis levels, more than an initial target for a 10% cut by 2024, according to Energy Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher.

“My goal is that this drop becomes structural,” Pannier-Runacher said in an interview with L’Alsace and other newspapers published Thursday. “Sobriety must become a habit.” 

The government will provide subsidies covering as much as 80% of the price of “smart” digital thermostats for homes, which can cost up to €1,000 ($1,062), the minister said. Six energy suppliers, including state-owned Electricite de France SA, will offer contracts that reward households that curb energy use, she said.

A law that regulates lighting hours for shop windows and commercial real estate will become stricter, and offenders will face fines of €1,500, according to the minister. The government, which is already subsidizing car-sharing, will introduce new tax breaks for businesses that help employees bike to work. Oil use must fall further, after dropping less than 2% in the past year, Pannier-Runacher said.

Authorities are extending last year’s request to companies on France’s benchmark CAC40 stock index to build an energy-conservation plan, to firms listed on the broader SBF120 index.

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