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Tuesday, 29 September 2026dailybeirut.com
World
France plans a nationwide electricity blackout simulation in late 2027, involving grid operators Enedis and RTE, multiple ministries, and the military, to test response capacity and service continuity.
French authorities are preparing a large-scale, unannounced simulation of a sudden, nationwide electricity blackout scheduled for the second half of 2027, according to four officials familiar with the exercise’s planning details.
The drill will involve France’s two principal electricity network operators — Enedis and RTE — alongside several government ministries, state agencies, and the French military command structure. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to Politico, citing the absence of official public announcement.
The exercise aims to assess national responsiveness to a catastrophic power failure that paralyzes critical infrastructure, modeled on the April 2025 blackout affecting Spain and Portugal. It will also simulate a major cyberattack targeting the electricity grid, similar to the incident in Poland last year, which the European Union attributed to Russian intelligence services.
One source described the simulation as a test of “the state’s ability to respond,” specifying that it will measure the time required to restore power and evaluate authorities’ capacity to sustain essential public services. The exercise received formal approval during a meeting of the Interministerial Committee for National Resilience on 8 July. Officials confirmed that full details will be made public before the end of 2026.
Minutes from that 8 July meeting indicate the government has also defined additional resilience priorities, including ensuring uninterrupted state access to goods classified as “essential for the continuity of state institutions and population protection.” These designated items include emergency blankets, portable generators, pharmaceuticals, communications equipment, law enforcement gear, and critical raw materials.
Preparations for crisis readiness have risen as a prominent political issue in France amid record-breaking heatwaves and widespread forest fires, prompting a national reassessment of emergency management capabilities. Last summer, the government revised the National Resilience Strategy — a framework designed to safeguard core functions of public life during armed conflict or natural disasters.
