The French government is planning a tabletop simulation of a sudden, nationwide power outage in the second half of 2027, according to four people with direct knowledge of the exercise. The simulation will test the country’s ability to respond to a paralyzing electricity outage and ensure continuity of essential services.
The exercise will involve French electricity grid operators Enedis and RTE as well as several government departments and the French military administration. Its purpose is to determine how France would respond to an outage of the kind that hit Spain and Portugal in April 2025, or a major cyberattack targeting the power grid as Poland experienced last year, an act Brussels attributed to Russian intelligence services.
The simulation was formally confirmed during an interministerial committee on national resilience on July 8. A detailed announcement should come before the end of the year. The meeting notes outline priorities such as making sure the French state maintains access to goods considered essential to ensuring the continuity of the state, including emergency blankets, generators, medicines, telecommunications equipment, and critical raw materials.
Crisis preparedness has become a pressing political issue in France after a summer of record-breaking heat and wildfires. Many French regions have faced unprecedented temperatures since June, with the national 24-hour average temperature exceeding 30 degrees Celsius for the first time. In the southwest, out-of-control wildfires forced mass evacuations affecting more than 200,000 people.
In Paris, the mayor made a desperate plea to large-scale food retailers to mobilize ice stocks over fears that first responders would run out of cubes to cool heatstroke victims. Opposition parties attacked the government over what they described as widespread lack of preparedness, forcing the executive to defend itself and announce reforms.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced that the government would submit a bill to parliament to improve emergency response systems. We want to refocus fire and rescue services on their core mission and adapt our organization to the crises that lie ahead, Lecornu said in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche. The government also updated the National Resilience Strategy, a roadmap on how to maintain essential functions in the face of war or natural disasters.
The blackout simulation reflects broader concerns across Europe about energy security and infrastructure resilience. As climate change drives more extreme weather events, governments are increasingly forced to confront scenarios that were once considered unlikely. Politico Europe Bloomberg
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