Brittany to bury power lines in attempt to limit outages from storms
Enedis plans a €390million upgrade to make the region more resilient to future extreme weather
Burying power lines means they are less likely to get damaged, but it costs a lot more
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Plans to bury 1,100km of medium- and low-voltage electric power lines in Brittany by 2029 have been announced by state electricity network Enedis after the region was ravaged by a storm in November 2023.
Storm Ciarán saw winds of 207km/h recorded at Pointe du Raz lighthouse. It blew for the best part of a night across the region, before moving north and hitting the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and parts of Italy.
In Brittany 780,000 homes were left without electricity, and some isolated properties only saw power restored three weeks later.
Enedis workers from all over France were called in to repair damage.
Read more: Storm Ciaran in France: power cut payouts to homes begin
“We already knew that parts of the electricity network in Brittany were getting old and were vulnerable and we had plans to update it,” an EDF spokesman told The Connexion.
“After the storm we started to plan how we could rebuild the network to make it more resilient to future storms, with Brittany in the past few years having had more extreme weather events than before.”
High cost of burying power lines
Burying electricity lines is more expensive than having them on pylons, but they are less likely to be damaged.
Enedis said burying cables was usually at least five times more expensive than using pylons or posts, at between €100 and €150 per metre, compared to €20 for above ground cables.
“Burying power lines is not the solution everywhere – where the soil is soft and crumbly, for example, it is not possible,” the spokesman said.
“But in identified areas where it is usually particularly windy or where there are many trees, it is the best long-term solution to keep people supplied with electricity.”
Read more: Insurers refuse to cover properties in ‘flood risk’ Brittany town
Extra funds for Brittany
Brittany already had half its cables buried before the latest Reconstruction Bretagne project.
Another 1,000km of lines on pylons will be “toughened”, either by having old worn parts replaced or by changing the wires from single strand to plaited ones, which are less likely to snap.
Enedis said it will spend an extra €390million by 2029 on the programme to improve Brittany’s electricity network, in addition to sums already allocated for the task.
It had already planned to reinforce 3,500km of its 108,806 km of cables making up its network in the region.
It is negotiating with the Autorités Organisatrices de la Distribution d'Energie (AODE) over the budget and the spokesman said the government’s drive to cut state spending had not affected its plans.
“The AODE has a long-range budget for investment and, globally, that has been approved and already financed by successive governments,” he said.
Part of the budget will be used for increased maintenance, with particular attention to pruning trees near electricity cables, and the use of drones and artificial intelligence software to check electricity lines for problems.
The drones are gradually replacing helicopters for power line surveillance all over France.
Enedis now employs 400 professional drone pilots, 42 of whom are based in Brittany.
Read more: Wave power generators ride out storms in trials off French coast
