SLN (Eramet)
Here again with the right keyword
NOUMÉA (awp/afp) – Société Le Nickel (SLN) took delivery of a floating oil-fired power plant on Saturday, which should enable it to secure production at its metallurgical plant in Nouméa and compensate for the failure of an outdated power plant, whose replacement is long overdue.
Leaving Turkey on July 16, this temporary berthed power plant (CAT), leased by SLN, owned by the mining group Eramet, the world’s number one Karpowership power plant, arrived on Saturday September 3 in Nouméa, its home port. for the next three years.
The equipment will produce up to 200 MW, making it the largest power generation unit in the territory.
It must supply electricity from the Doniambo metallurgical site (Nouméa), replacing the “B” plant, which will be permanently shut down. Built in 1972, this facility has only been operating at 75% capacity since May 2021, following an explosion that claimed the life of a maintenance worker.
The floating plant will be commissioned in early October. It is “a temporary solution, leased until 2025, pending the supply of electricity by the Caledonian network”, according to SLN.
The “B” plant, owned by the mining group, must be replaced by a “country” plant belonging to New Caledonia. This project, launched in 2016, is however now at a standstill, although the framework agreement signed with the New Caledonian government provides for 100% supply from the New Caledonian electricity network by 2035.
Until then, “an energy mix” should allow SLN to separate from the floating plant in 2025.
This plant raises questions locally. The Union of Workers and Employees of New Caledonia (Soenc) fears that it will replace the central country project. However, without it, “nothing guarantees the maintenance of the local processing of the ore extracted by the SLN”, points out the union.
For its part, Scal’Air, in charge of monitoring air quality, indicates that it has given an unfavorable opinion on the project, because of the sulfur emissions that this fuel-powered plant will generate.
It “has better environmental efficiency, but it is intended to operate much more than (the current power plant in) Doniambo. So we consider that in terms of polluting emissions, it will be equivalent”, explained Nina Julié, president of Scal’Air.
SLN ensures that the floating plant, whose production can be modulated, will on the contrary allow more frequent use of renewable energies.
Another critic, the association Together for the Planet (EPLP) deplores, with Scal’Air, that this large-scale project has not been the subject of a public inquiry, the southern province in charge of the file having estimated that it was not necessary due to the “urgent and temporary” nature of the project.
cm/etr/pa/spi