Power men anxious in France
NZPA-Reuter Paris Embarrassed French Electricity Board officials waited anxiously yesterday to see whether France’s power supplies would fail for the second day running. Most of tile country was blacked out on Tuesday after excess, demand . caused by cold weather overloaded the national grid system. The black-out brought chaos and trapped thousands of. people in lifts and the Paris Metro.
After a complete breakdown, it takes nuclear power stations about 36 hours to resume full operations, and there were fears that there could be fresh cuts as the demand built up again. Electricity service officials were smarting under criticism- from the public and politicians. The same officials had previously said a big black-out could not happen in France. The Industry Minister (Mr Andre Giraud) appealed on television for consumers to minimise demand. Mr Giraud also ordered an investigation into cuts which the financial daily newspaper, “Les Echos,” said would cost up to SIOOOM.
The only regions unaffected were Alsace and Lorraine, which receive power from West Germany.
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Press, 21 December 1978, Page 9
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171Power men anxious in France Press, 21 December 1978, Page 9
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