The black out was due to power lines cuts. Only a few voltage converters (100,000 -> ... -> 220 V) were hit.
There is 2 companies managing the power lines in France :
- RTE for high voltage lines (400,000 V)
- ERDF for mid (???? V) and low (220 V) voltage lines
The last tempest was in 1999 and was declared the 20th century tempest. Thousand houses didn't got electricity during 3 weeks because a lot of high, mid and low voltage lines were cut. After this event they decided 2 main points :
- put new lines underground, and some older when possible.
- organize the people to secure and restore the broken lines as fast as possible.
When the red alert was broadcasted, one thousand electricians were mobilized and intervened to secure the cut lines as soon as the tempest passed the region. For zones with difficult access, planes flight over to detect problems and helicopters dropped down electricians. They did so where high voltage grid was the weakest and regions with no viable mid voltage lines.
RTE can't bury high voltage lines, so they extended the pruning trees range around their lines. ERDF buried 95% of its new lines during the last years, but only 35% of its lines are currently buried (50% in UK and 80% in Germany). 1.3 million kilometers (0.8 million miles) are currently aerial.
The tempest cut several high voltage lines. The grid permitted to feed every regions excepted one. For this one another region shared their electricity and they got electricity alternatively until Spain agreed to feed a France-Spain high voltage line.
Hundred of mid/low lines were also cut. Of course they began by the mid lines to permit as much people as possible to get electricity back. Currently, 5 days after the tempest, less than 90,000 houses (out of 1,700,000) doesn't have electricity yet. Sunday less than a thousand shouldn't be connected back. In 1999, 3 weeks were necessary to achieve the same percentage.
The saddest, excepted victims, is the destroyed forest. While the 1999 tempest destroyed 100,000 ha, the 2009 tempest destroyed 300,000 ha. The wood lost 85% of its value, which was always under its pre-1999 value, and can only be used for paper and heat.
Saturday lots of people rushed to buy gasoline generators right after the tempest, as the radios were constantly talking about the 3 weeks of blackout for a couple thousand houses in 1999. This tempest proved they improved and will continue to do so.
I prefer thinking about some renewable project that can be useful all year long and big enough to feed what I'll need, as the freezer and the refrigerator. As my current freezer and refrigerator are consuming 250 and 150 kWh/year respectively, this is 1.1 kWh/day ie a capacity of 91 Ah for a 12 V battery. The question is how much days I want to "survive" and how much I'm ready to invest... my old car battery is only a 50 Ah.
Denis.