1. Current status of the French distribution network

At the end of the Second World War, the imperative of reconstruction and development in a predominantly rural, sparsely populated country led to the construction of overhead power networks in rural and peri-urban areas, which were quicker and less costly to install than underground systems.

Subsequently, neither the voltage changes affecting medium and low voltage, nor the various policies for improving quality on a day-to-day basis, actually altered this approach to network design. It was not until considerable progress was made in cable design and trenching that this trend began to...