Several districts of Paris temporarily plunged into darkness after “technical incident”

This breakdown, caused by the accidental cut of a high voltage buried line, affected approximately 125,000 households but has nothing to do with the load shedding in the event of too large voltage on the network.

mo12345lemonde with AFP

Several central districts of Paris were immersed in the dark Thursday, December 8 in the evening, after a massive power cut which assigned up to 125,000 customers, due to a “technical incident” on a transformer , according to Enedis network managers and electricity transport network (RTE).

Electricity was restored in most households before midnight, it is said. Images published on social networks by amazed Parisians showed streets with lampposts, red lights and completely extinct buildings, the headlights of cars being sometimes the only light source.

This breakdown arises when it has been a lot question in France for a few days of possible temporary cuts, which would be decided, in advance, if the network were to enter into too much tension due to the cold, while 18 of the 56 French nuclear reactors are still stopped for maintenance or repairs.

The “damage” on Thursday, according to the term of the high -voltage line manager RTE, did not fall into this context. A “technical incident on an Enedis transformer” led to the cut of a “radial”, a buried high voltage line of 225,000 volts, a spokesman for RTE explained to the France-Press Agency (AFP) .

cuts from a few seconds to 40 minutes

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e and 14 e districts were affected, according to RTE and Enedis. Around midnight, several streets of the 5 ^{e and 14 e} arrondissements were still concerned, said Enedis in its application “Enedis by my side”, evoking for certain streets a recovery at 1 hour 30 in the morning or even 3 o’clock. Around 0 hours 30 hours, most of the streets of 5 ^e arrondissement were again lit, according to an AFP journalist.

Some 60,000 households dependent on the goblin power station were only deprived of current very briefly, some only a few seconds. On the other hand for 65,000 customers, dependent on the Cardinal-Lemoine post, it lasted between twenty and forty minutes, specifies RTE. A manual maneuver will still have to be done to restore the last cut households overnight. Analyzes will be launched to determine the nature of the incident, adds Rte.

According to Enedis, the “incident occurred on the electricity network this [Thursday] evening at 10:15 pm in Paris”. “Thanks to technical maneuvers on the distribution network, almost all customers have been realized in less than twenty minutes. The return to normal is scheduled for the evening,” added the distribution network manager in his press release, Who like RTE “apologies for the inconvenience caused”.