ON DECRYPT
Promised by François Hollande, pushed back several times and finally confirmed on Monday by EDF, the closure of Fessenheim, the oldest nuclear power plant still operating in France, could well put the French power grid in tension.
The first commitment was clear: the final shutdown of the Fessenheim reactors was to mark the opening of the Flamanville EPR, a third-generation nuclear reactor designed to provide improved power and safety. Substitution would have largely offset the closure of the plant. That was not counting the multiple delays, which still delay the opening of the new EPR. According to the latest estimates, the site should not be completed until the end of 2022, at least 10 years after the original date.
The Cordemais power plant to compensate
Given this significant delay, the government decided last year that the closure of Fessenheim would not ultimately depend on the opening of Flamanville. Keeping it open longer would have required major maintenance investments. According to several electricity experts, the efficiency of the electricity grid could however be guaranteed post-Fessenheim with some adjustments. Jean Paul Roubin, Chief Operating Officer of RTE, the French Electricity Transmission Operator (RTE), assures that the network can operate without this power station, provided that it retains other capacity to supply Brittany, the French region. more concerned about the lack of electricity.
"As long as the Flamanville EPR is not available on the grid, the Cordemais thermal power plant is necessary for the security of supply in the West-West region," he says at the microphone in Europe 1. However, it had been planned to close the thermal power plant in Loire-Atlantique, so it may be necessary to keep it running for at least a few days in the year to cope with the difficulties.