The setbacks encountered by EDF's nuclear fleet and the war in Ukraine are forcing France to review its energy policy.
The Saint-Avold coal-fired power station, in Moselle, which is scheduled to close on Thursday March 31, could resume service next winter, we learned Monday from the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
"If the Saint-Avold plant is not intended to operate in the coming months", work carried out by the ministry with the manager of the RTE network "could conclude on the advisability of authorizing the punctual restart of this plant" , the ministry said.
The Minister for Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, has requested an independent audit from EDF to identify the levers to optimize the availability of the nuclear fleet and recover margins on the electricity system.
The conclusions are expected by the end of May.
Towards a temporary easing of constraints
In application of the energy and climate law, an annual production limit of 700 hours of operation has been set since this year for coal-fired power plants.
The Gazel company had therefore initiated the closure of the Saint-Avold power plant.
But in a context of unforeseen unavailability of part of the nuclear fleet for the winter of 2021-2022, this constraint on operating hours has been relaxed to secure the passage of winter, to 1,000 hours for the January period. -February, then 600 hours for the rest of 2022.
To allow the restart of Saint-Avold, the government would "again temporarily relax the constraint on the number of hours of operation of this plant", as for the only other coal-fired plant still open, that of Cordemais, in Loire-Atlantique , "in order to secure the electricity supply during the coming autumn and winter", according to the ministry.
The State claims not to question the exit from coal
In the event of temporary operation of the plant next winter, production would take place under two conditions: "an absence of Russian coal supply and full compensation for greenhouse gas emissions due to the operation of the plant, in order to to neutralize the corresponding climate impact”.
With or without a temporary extension of Saint-Avold, "the production of electricity from coal will remain extremely marginal in France (less than 1%)", nevertheless underlined the ministry, according to which the possible operation of the plant in winter next, "linked to an exceptional context", would not call into question the overall trajectory of France's coal exit.
Emmanuel Macron had indeed promised to close the last coal-fired power stations by 2022 – easily mobilized to produce electricity when needed, but also very emitting CO2 harmful to the climate.
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