In 2017, candidate Emmanuel Macron pledged to close the last French coal-fired power plants, the most polluting fuel, within a five-year period. A promise still outstanding five years later, to the chagrin of environmental defense associations, after the re-election of the President of the Republic. According to the version of a future bill revealed on Sunday June 26 by RTL and consulted by The worldthe government plans to restart the Saint-Avold (Moselle) power plant on a provisional basis for the winter of 2022.
The entourage of Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Energy Transition, confirms the development of a measure ” temporary “. The Lorraine site ceased to operate on March 31. A brief reopening would make it possible to have, if necessary between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, a small additional margin of safety to avoid power cuts. In March, the Ministry of Ecological Transition had already announced the possibility of such a “one-time restart”.
It is that the end of the year is announced under “special vigilance”, according to the French operator of the electricity transmission network, RTE. Especially because of nuclear power, the main source of electricity in France. For the current year, the operator EDF expects production to be at its lowest in three decades. In question, corrosion problems on certain power plants, as well as a delay linked to Covid-19 in classic maintenance operations.
Uncertain context
For a decade, the State has been engaged in the following equation: preserving the balance between electricity supply and demand, while abandoning several thermal units running on fuel oil and coal, in particular for environmental reasons. As well as the Fessenheim nuclear power plant (Haut-Rhin), in 2020, by political decision. However, the country is still lagging behind on its objectives for renewable energies such as wind and solar, which are by nature intermittent.
The war led by Russia in Ukraine, since February 24, makes the context all the more uncertain. “Even if France is less dependent on Russian gas than Germany or Italy, the weakening of the production of its nuclear fleet and the tensions on the water stocks of its hydraulic dams mark the great return of security problems. supply”, believes Patrice Geoffron, professor of economics at Paris-Dauphine-PSL University.
This is also why the leaders of the country’s three main energy groups have expressed their wish to“a major energy efficiency program and [d’]a national waste hunt” to save energy, in the words of Jean-Bernard Lévy (EDF), Catherine MacGregor (Engie) and Patrick Pouyanné (TotalEnergies), in a column published by the JDDJune 26.
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