Paris by candlelight. A massive power outage affected up to 125,000 customers Thursday evening in several central districts of the capital, plunging entire neighborhoods into darkness, due to a “technical incident” on a transformer, according to network managers Enedis and RTE, who presented their “apologies”. Most outbreaks were restored before midnight, it says.
Images posted on social media by stunned Parisians showed streets with lampposts, red lights and buildings completely extinguished, with car headlights sometimes the only source of light.
This outage comes at a time when there has been much talk in France for a few days of possible temporary cuts, which would be decided in advance if the network were to become too tense due to the cold, while 18 of the 56 French nuclear reactors are still shut down for maintenance or repairs.
Incident on a transformer
The “damage” of Thursday, according to the term of the manager of the high voltage lines RTE, did not enter into this context. A “technical incident on an Enedis transformer” led to the cutting of a “radial”, a buried high-voltage line of 225,000 volts, an RTE spokesperson told AFP.
The 3rd, 4th, 5th and 14th arrondissements were affected, according to RTE and Enedis. Around midnight, several streets in the 5th and 14th arrondissements were still affected, indicated Enedis in its application “Enedis by my side”, evoking for certain streets a recovery at 1:30 a.m. or even 3 a.m.
Analysis in progress
Around 12:30 a.m., most of the streets in the 5th arrondissement were lit again, according to an AFP journalist. Some 60,000 homes depending on the Gobelins power station were deprived of power only very briefly, some only for a few seconds.
On the other hand, for 65,000 customers, depending on the Cardinal-Lemoine station, it lasted between 20 and 40 minutes, specifies RTE. A manual operation will still have to be carried out to restore the last homes cut during the night. 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 p.m. in Paris”.
“Thanks to technical maneuvers on the distribution network, almost all customers were resupplied in less than 20 minutes. The return to normal is expected in the evening”, adds in his press release the manager of the distribution network, who like RTE “apologizes for the inconvenience caused”.