Enedis has doubled its emergency response teams, deploying 3,000 personnel to restore power to approximately 900,000 homes across France left without electricity following the passage of Storm Nils, the company announced Thursday.
The escalation from an initial mobilization of 1,500 technicians reflects the storm’s unexpectedly wide impact, according to Hervé Champenois, Enedis’s crisis director. “We had 1,500 technicians pre-mobilized thanks to weather forecasts, who are already on the ground, and we are strengthening the deployment to bring the number of people able to carry out repairs to 3,000,” Champenois stated during a press briefing.
The majority of outages are concentrated in the Occitanie and Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions. Enedis’s response includes 1,000 of its own technicians, supplemented by 400 personnel from external companies, including tree surgeons to clear debris obstructing repairs, Champenois explained.
Champenois characterized the storm as “quite exceptional” in its scope, necessitating the increased resources. In addition to personnel, 170 kits of equipment have been dispatched to affected areas. 200 generators and helicopters are on standby awaiting authorization to begin operations.
The current situation is comparable to that of Storm Ciaran, which struck northwestern France in November 2023, cutting power to 1.2 million homes in Brittany and Normandy, Champenois noted. Like Ciaran, Nils is characterized by “very strong winds” causing trees to fall and “heavy rains,” leading to flooding that is expected to complicate restoration efforts.
Enedis teams worked overnight to remotely restore power to some customers. Champenois declined to provide a timeline for full restoration of power to all affected households.
A driver was killed in the Landes region when struck by a branch dislodged by the storm’s winds, according to reports.