Berliner Boersenzeitung - France's City of Light switches to climate-resilient power cables

EUR -
AED 4.27891
AFN 80.967784
ALL 97.154935
AMD 446.14306
ANG 2.085018
AOA 1068.26432
ARS 1504.541568
AUD 1.804458
AWG 2.097211
AZN 1.981673
BAM 1.949576
BBD 2.352589
BDT 141.568014
BGN 1.956192
BHD 0.43917
BIF 3450.598568
BMD 1.164956
BND 1.494927
BOB 8.080133
BRL 6.409939
BSD 1.16518
BTN 101.440693
BWP 16.254963
BYN 3.905132
BYR 22833.130294
BZD 2.340408
CAD 1.615502
CDF 3373.711076
CHF 0.94062
CLF 0.028622
CLP 1122.830982
CNY 8.367174
CNH 8.373689
COP 4703.578242
CRC 588.815026
CUC 1.164956
CUP 30.871324
CVE 110.670779
CZK 24.460223
DJF 207.035904
DKK 7.465739
DOP 72.081623
DZD 151.330087
EGP 56.447105
ERN 17.474334
ETB 164.171373
FJD 2.6381
FKP 0.861727
GBP 0.863604
GEL 3.139542
GGP 0.861727
GHS 12.704979
GIP 0.861727
GMD 83.876708
GNF 10110.071634
GTQ 8.930487
GYD 243.76962
HKD 9.085897
HNL 30.633669
HRK 7.53785
HTG 152.552942
HUF 393.895038
IDR 18969.613204
ILS 3.951184
IMP 0.861727
INR 101.455287
IQD 1526.091872
IRR 49003.858649
ISK 143.404503
JEP 0.861727
JMD 186.554385
JOD 0.825943
JPY 171.941639
KES 150.859461
KGS 101.875046
KHR 4666.812322
KMF 493.359234
KPW 1048.436558
KRW 1623.121522
KWD 0.35615
KYD 0.970992
KZT 627.187568
LAK 25163.041475
LBP 104321.776601
LKR 351.527672
LRD 234.742318
LSL 20.607944
LTL 3.439811
LVL 0.70467
LYD 6.314044
MAD 10.50732
MDL 19.469672
MGA 5166.578603
MKD 61.344146
MMK 2444.698297
MNT 4190.419262
MOP 9.363864
MRU 46.539649
MUR 53.226857
MVR 17.939043
MWK 2023.528039
MXN 21.921669
MYR 4.919636
MZN 74.452003
NAD 20.608393
NGN 1788.405077
NIO 42.868755
NOK 11.976577
NPR 162.305804
NZD 1.975573
OMR 0.447924
PAB 1.16517
PEN 4.116662
PGK 4.838934
PHP 66.631633
PKR 328.458758
PLN 4.244985
PYG 8419.120139
QAR 4.241312
RON 5.060332
RSD 117.181753
RUB 94.108033
RWF 1682.195926
SAR 4.371372
SBD 9.576369
SCR 16.476765
SDG 699.559125
SEK 11.183428
SGD 1.496735
SHP 0.915472
SLE 27.145043
SLL 24428.534661
SOS 665.775387
SRD 43.860647
STD 24112.229448
STN 24.871803
SVC 10.195449
SYP 15146.315069
SZL 20.607829
THB 37.954384
TJS 10.83003
TMT 4.077345
TND 3.359728
TOP 2.728445
TRY 47.637711
TTD 7.89672
TWD 35.108305
TZS 2915.884223
UAH 48.217115
UGX 4153.738292
USD 1.164956
UYU 46.680961
UZS 14591.069108
VES 159.158574
VND 30661.63211
VUV 139.085017
WST 3.12018
XAF 653.866583
XAG 0.031161
XAU 0.000351
XCD 3.148351
XCG 2.099896
XDR 0.81212
XOF 654.123187
XPF 119.331742
YER 279.824076
ZAR 20.601894
ZMK 10486.007087
ZMW 27.119183
ZWL 375.115237
  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    75.92

    0%

  • CMSC

    0.2400

    23.39

    +1.03%

  • RYCEF

    -0.5000

    14.3

    -3.5%

  • SCS

    0.1900

    16.24

    +1.17%

  • CMSD

    0.2400

    23.59

    +1.02%

  • NGG

    0.2800

    70.98

    +0.39%

  • RIO

    0.2300

    60.59

    +0.38%

  • BCC

    3.4200

    88.06

    +3.88%

  • JRI

    -0.0300

    13.28

    -0.23%

  • RELX

    -0.0300

    47.79

    -0.06%

  • BCE

    0.0100

    25.58

    +0.04%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    11.71

    +0.09%

  • GSK

    0.5500

    39.62

    +1.39%

  • BTI

    -0.2500

    57.47

    -0.44%

  • AZN

    0.4200

    79.54

    +0.53%

  • BP

    -0.2300

    33.82

    -0.68%

France's City of Light switches to climate-resilient power cables
France's City of Light switches to climate-resilient power cables / Photo: STRINGER - AFP

France's City of Light switches to climate-resilient power cables

To maintain the glow of the City of Light, Paris is modernising its underground electric cables, vulnerable to damage during heatwaves and dating back 60 years.

Text size:

With power cables melting from Portland to Sicily, the world's 80 million kilometres (50 million miles) of power lines are largely unprepared to resist extreme temperatures, scientists have warned.

The French capital over the next few months will be replacing its obsolete paper-insulated lead-covered cables (PILC), which are made of oil-impregnated paper encased in a lead sheath.

"We're anticipating the renewal of these cables, which are starting to be affected by heat, to have a very resilient network in Paris," said Olivier Lagnel, deputy regional director for utility firm Enedis.

Nearby, workers in orange vests worked in a trench close to the Montparnasse train station to replace the medium voltage PILC, which were installed in 1965, with modern, plastic cables.

State-owned Enedis says Paris is not alone: its counterparts in Chicago, London, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Osaka, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney also plan to update their cables.

- 'Climate emergency' -

Trouble has mounted in recent years.

Paper-insulated during a 2003 heatwave in France showed weaknesses with "an incident rate multiplied by eight across the medium-voltage underground network", according to a March 2024 report by France's Court of Audit.

Overhead tramway cables melted in Portland in 2021 during record-high temperatures in the northwest US state of Oregon.

A searing heatwave in July 2023 left hundreds of thousands of Sicilians without electricity and water for days.

Heat damage to underground cables was to blame, said supplier e-distribuzione, the distribution arm of energy giant Enel.

"We find ourselves operating in conditions of exceptional climatic emergency," where the temperature of the asphalt on roads reached 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), it said in a statement at the time.

A 2021 study led by Alessandro Bosisio, an assistant professor at the University of Pavia in Italy, found that "an abnormal increase of faults in underground Medium Voltage cable joints has been recorded, especially during summer" worldwide in recent years.

Climate scientists say the period being lived through right now is likely the warmest the earth has seen for the last 100,000 years, back at the start of the last Ice Age.

- Avoid cuts -

PILC cables, which were the international standard from the late 19th century until the 1970s, were long considered highly reliable.

They were wrapped in layers of oily paper intended to isolate the centre of the cable, which heats up as electrons pass through.

The cables were conceived to resist temperatures up to 90C (194F). But when heat is trapped for days under the asphalt, they can reach 120-130C (248-266F) -- ageing faster and eventually risking failure.

Paris's 9,200 kilometres of low- and medium-voltage power cables are entirely buried underground -- to save space and protect them from the wind, Lagnel said.

Enedis plans to phase out the obsolete cables in French cities by 2050.

"The main problem is that the insulator can dry up, and in that case the cable can be sensitive," said Lagnel.

"The idea is to avoid cuts as much as possible" and to "desensitise the network... as heatwaves come back more and more often, stronger and stronger."

(Y.Berger--BBZ)