On the morning of November 20, a blackout struck parts of Paris and the Hauts‑de‑Seine, shutting down street lights, the metro and leaving tens of thousands of households without power.
Paris Power Cut on November 20
Enedis, the French electricity network operator, announced that on the morning of November 20, power was interrupted in parts of two Paris districts and the Hauts‑de‑Seine department. The outage plunged city streets into darkness and halted power to the area.
Metro Line 12 Suspended
The Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP) posted on X that trains were stopped along the entire Line 12 due to a power outage. Service resumed shortly thereafter.
Recovery Restores Service to 55,000 Homes
Initially, the outage affected 55,000 households. By 7:50 a.m. the number had dropped to 2,600. Enedis reported that repair work was completed within minutes for many affected homes in southern Paris and nearby Issy‑les‑Moulineaux, though difficulties persisted for 30 to 40 minutes in some areas.
Malakoff Residents Blocked by Faulty Access Codes
In Malakoff, some residents could not enter their homes because their entry codes stopped working when the power supply was cut.
Past Blackouts: Spain and Portugal
Earlier in the year, a major blackout on April 28 in Spain halted 116 trains, trapping around 35,000 passengers on the tracks. A similar disruption occurred in Portugal, where traffic lights and the metro failed, accompanied by internet and telephone connection problems.