Mélina Facchin 11:34 a.m., September 14, 2022

For fear of a shortage of electricity this winter, the coal-fired power station of Saint-Avold, in Moselle, will restart its production in early October, at the request of the State.

While the site was supposed to close permanently last March, management had to convince its dismissed employees to return for a few months.

Due to the energy crisis, the coal-fired power plant in Saint-Avold (Moselle) will have to restart.

While it had definitively closed on March 31, the State asked it to restart its production for this winter.

Management therefore had to convince its former employees to return to the site until March 2023. And even if most are happy to resume their activity, they are skeptical about this restart.

>> Find Europe Matin in replay and podcast here

“I have the impression that we dug up a corpse”

At the heart of the plant, dozens of trucks are again unloading hundreds of thousands of tons of coal.

A black mountain of about fifteen meters has already formed.

Everyone is working hard.

"We're happy to come back because it's busy," admits Sylvain Krebs, park manager.

But this former employee is still a little bitter.

"For me, we dug up a corpse," he says.

"The 210,000 tons of coal that you see will make CO², we know that," he sighs.

"We will have to do it for the good of the nation, but it's really because [the state] asks us to do so," he concludes.

Big bonuses to bring back employees

Almost all former employees have agreed to leave their reclassification leave or their early retirement, lured in particular by a monthly bonus of up to 5,800 euros.

“Of our 69 employees made redundant at the end of March, 68 are back”, specifies Camille Jaffrelo, spokesperson for GazelEnergie, the owner of the site.

An unprecedented situation: "This is the first time that a private company has been asked to rehire employees who have just been made redundant," she recalls.

Restarting the plant just for this winter, unless...

At the request of the State, electricity production will therefore restart at the beginning of October and in theory just for this winter, until March 31.

But employees and management have serious doubts about this.

“What will have changed by then?” asks Sylvain Krebs.

"Do you think the war in Ukraine will be over? In my opinion, we are back for two years," predicts the manager of the coal park.

>> READ ALSO

- Use of coal-fired power plants: what local residents think

"There is one thing that is certain, it is that we do not want our employees to relive what they experienced last March", adds Camille Jaffrelo very firmly.

“We therefore asked to have a clear vision during the winter to be able to tell them whether or not they will be present at the plant next winter,” insists the spokesperson for the group.

Above all, everyone hopes that the plant's new projects around renewable energies will not be delayed.