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Power cut in west France affects 272,000 homes

More than 270,000 households were left without power in the centre-west of France last night (Thursday September 3) after a massive electricity fault in the Indre department.

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Households were affected across Haute-Vienne, Creuse, Corrèze (Nouvelle-Aquitaine) and Indre (Centre-Val-de-Loire) for more than two hours, according to network manager RTE.

Haute-Vienne was most affected (with 163,000 households) followed by Indre (54,000), Creuse (53,000) and Corrèze (2,400).

The fault began at 21:26. It was caused by a fault at the electrical substation in Eguzon (Indre).

In several tweets aimed at updating customers on the situation, RTE en Sud-Ouest said that its teams were working with electricity supplier Enedis to “do as much as possible to establish the connectionâ€.

But for more than two hours, residents were plunged into near-total darkness, including in the towns of Limoges (Haute-Vienne) and Châteauroux (Indre).

Some households began to report that their power was back on before 23:00, with RTE confirming “the end of the power cut†at a quarter to midnight (23:44). It apologised to its customers for the “momentary inconvenienceâ€.

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