France heatwave’s first major outage leaves 68,000 homes without power

The outage, which involved a transformer on the electricity grid, was related to extreme temperatures and did not injure anyone, the prefecture in the coastal department of Finistère said in a statement.

The incident took place around 9pm on Tuesday in the commune of Ergue-Gaberic, near Quimper, the prefecture added.

Teams from French grid operators RTE and Enedis worked through the night to fix the issue, but power is not expected to be restored in full until the end of the day at the earliest.

Up to 106,000 clients of the French power network were left without power by late Tuesday, as the continent’s sweltering heatwave pushed the country into its hottest day ever.

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“For technical reasons, RTE will not be able to re-connect the affected households during the course of the day; connections will be made, at the earliest, by the end of Wednesday,” the operator said.

The technical director of Enedis had warned at the start of the week that the extreme heat could lead to blackouts as the older parts of the grid struggle to deal with soaring temperatures, adding that surface temperatures of 40C can lead to the mercury topping 80C underground.

Finistère is one of 58 French départements under the highest red alert for extreme heat on Wednesday, with temperatures of 39C to 41C expected on Wednesday from Brittany to the Paris region.

The extreme weather is being driven by atmospheric and circulation patterns that keep hot air trapped in place for days, and these factors are worsened by global warming, experts say.

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Scientists have repeatedly shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming, primarily caused by burning coal, oil and gas — and warn they are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.