On their phone, subscribers to the alert system of the city of Aubagne received this morning a message informing them of a power cut affecting several districts of the town. “”Camp Major, Turrel, Hospital, Fenestrelles sectors and part of the city center“would be affected by the incident.
At the Standard of the Edmond-Garcin hospital, there was no power outage. But Enedis confirms that in the town of Aubagne, “Since 9:30 a.m. today, 5,900 customers are deprived of electricity“. A breakdown linked to”An underground incident due to current hot weather“. The manager of the electricity network ensures that its teams”were immediately mobilized and make every effort to restore [l’électricité chez] Customers as soon as possible“.
Too much heat under the tar
How can the heat wave put the electrical network in difficulty? “The very strong heat cumulative over several days with a temperature that does not go down at night raise the temperature of the tarmac soils of several dozen degrees (on the surface), which puts strong constraints underground networks“Responds to Enedis’ communication service.”The junction boxes (material which is used to connect two underground cables between them)“ would be particularly impacted.
Even if the electrical network is designed “To withstand large levels of constraints, especially in the event of high heat“, CANICULAR CLIMATE CONDITIONS”Can cause cuts by affecting the operation of certain underground electric works, on average voltage (20,000 volts) or low voltage (230-400 volts)“.
Run in the roadway
How to solve the problem? Sometimes, “The restoration of electricity can take place remotely in a few minutes, thanks to the management of the network carried out by the regional driving agency of Enedis (network control towers)“But in other cases, an intervention on site is necessary. In this case, “Enedis uses a truck equipped with detectors (fault search truck) in order to locate the place of the underground cable to repair very precisely”. Et “As soon as the precise place of the section of electric cable in default is located, it is necessary to defeat (dig a trench) so that the Enedis technicians can intervene on the underground equipment damaged by heat“.
In certain situations, “In order to limit a too long cut and while waiting for final repair, Enedis may have to install generators in order to guarantee customer electricity reallowing, the time for the final repair of the networks concerned“. In this case, we are not there yet. Shortly before noon, the defect search was always”in progress“.
