RTE employees, who manage France's electricity grid, exercised their right to alert on 29 June over heightened risks to infrastructure and staff during extreme heat.
Maintenance staff representatives, about 4 000 of RTE's 10 000 employees, triggered the procedure during a special social and economic committee meeting. Francis Casanova, central CGT union delegate at RTE, said two devices exploded on 24 June, one while on-call agents were nearby.
The workers demand identification of all at-risk devices, establishment of a security perimeter and replacement or de-energising of faulty equipment. They put the number of such devices across France at 550 and explain that heat creates condensation affecting electrical insulation.
RTE management acknowledged a single incident involving two measurement devices at the Squividan 225 000-volt substation in Finistère on 23 June. It states the infrastructure is sized for strong heat and that conservative measures are in place, as part of a 24-billion-euro investment plan by 2040 for climate adaptation.
