The high chimney spits out its thick smoke again and an incessant ballet of trucks comes to unload a dark cargo: with the cold setting in, the coal-fired power station of Saint-Avold (Moselle), one of the last in France, has resumed service on November 28. A major emitter of CO2, this plant was to close its doors definitively at the end of March. But the government decided otherwise this summer to secure the country’s electricity supply, given the conflict in Ukraine and the setbacks encountered by EDF’s nuclear fleet.
Since 9 a.m. on Monday morning, the Emile-Huchet power station has been sending electricity back to its network. This winter, the plant is expected to burn between 500,000 and 600,000 tonnes of coal, at the rate of 5,000 to 6,000 tonnes per day. The plant has the right to operate 2,500 hours until March 2023 to “secure the electrical system this winter”, specifies Camille Jaffrelo, spokesperson for GazelEnergie, the company that owns the installation. When running at full capacity, Emile-Huchet can produce up to 600 megawatt-hours and is able to supply a third of the homes in the Grand Est region.
Total cost of the operation for GazelEnergie: 500 million euros, including 400 million for the coal and its logistics. Before the restart, the company also had to carry out major renovation work on the installations and especially to recall the former employees of the site, more than half of whom were to retire. Recalling young retirees was an “obligation” for the company, which needed their skills. “Coal is heavy industry, it’s not by snapping your fingers that you are trained”, underlines Sylvain Krebs, manager of the coal fleet. In total, 70 of them responded, in particular thanks to the generous bonus of 5,800 euros gross per month offered to employees.
The Saint-Avold power plant should continue to produce electricity until March 2023. And after? On a possible recovery for winter 2023-2024, GazelEnergie is still awaiting a response from the government. And as quickly as possible. “Out of the question for us to send our employees home without visibility in April,” insists Camille Jaffrelo. “It’s not humanly possible, you can’t play yoyo with 150 people”.
In France, of the last four existing coal-fired power stations, two have been permanently shut down (that of Gardanne in the Bouches-du-Rhône and that of Le Havre). The operation of Cordemais (Pays de la Loire), it will cease its activity between 2024 and 2026.
There is only one other coal-fired power station still open in France, at Cordemais, in Loire-Atlantique. In France more than 67% of the electricity produced is of nuclear origin, the share of fossil fuels being in 2020 7.5%, including 6.9% gas and only 0.3% coal.
As for a possible recovery for winter 2023-2024, GazelEnergie calls on the government to take a decision as soon as possible.
“Out of the question for us to send our employees home without visibility in April,” insists Ms. Jaffrelo. “It is not humanly possible, we cannot play yoyo with 150 people”, she adds, asking the government to decide “before April so that this plant can operate” possibly next year.
Once definitively closed, the Emile-Huchet power plant will be dismantled to make way for new projects, in particular a biomass boiler which will supply heat to the industrialists of the neighboring Carling chemical platform, which GazelEnergie hopes to put into service at the end of 2024.