Grid power cut and generator failures disrupt Online.net data centre in France
July 2013Published 13 Oct 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor
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What happened
On Thursday 4 July 2013, at about 10:30, grid power supply to the DC2 data centre of Online.net in Vitry-sur-Seine, France, was lost. The host attributed the outage to a major incident on the ERDF electricity distribution network. Uninterruptible power supply units and generators took over at first. The host's spokesperson later said that two of the site's six generators had suffered a mechanical failure during the incident. A customer posting to a specialist mailing list reported that the stopping of air conditioning caused equipment temperatures to rise, and by late morning some machines were no longer working properly.
The Online.net website stopped responding. Customers hosted in the facility were also affected: the LaPoste.net customer area was temporarily unavailable, and Deezer reported that its second data centre at the host was down. The host said on social media that it was running on generators and did not yet have a restoration time. Service was largely restored by about 12:30. The facility covers 4,500 square metres.
Contributing factors
Loss of grid supply from the ERDF network, as stated by the host. Mechanical failure of two of the six backup generators, as stated by the host's spokesperson. Stoppage of air conditioning, which a customer reported caused equipment temperatures to rise. The source reports there was no redundant equipment between several sites, so some customers' services went down with the facility.
Lessons learned
- Test backup generators under realistic load at regular intervals, because a generator fault can coincide with a grid failure.
- Keep cooling supported on backup power, or provide thermal ride-through, so that equipment temperatures do not rise during an outage.
- Offer or require redundancy across sites for critical customer services, so that a single facility's loss of power does not take them offline.
More lessons on outages, backup supply and restoration, from every incident on the register.
Source
Published 2026-10-13. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.
