A picture taken 20 April 2006 shows high voltage electric lines of the French power company RTE, in Blandy-Les-Tours, south of Paris. A surge in electricity demand in Germany due to cold weather triggered blackouts across western Europe on 05 November 2006, leaving about 10 percent of French consumers without power, electricity operators said. “We weren't very far from a European blackout,” Pierre Bornard, a member of the board of directors of the French power company RTE. Parts of Italy and Spain also experienced power outages.
