The French government is considering restarting the Saint-Avold coal power plant in the Moselle region, just after 71 years of operation, in order to ensure France's power supply next winter because of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the ongoing maintenance shutdown of some nuclear power plants in France. Closed on March 31 this year. As a result, France will once again exceed the annual cap of 700 hours of operation for coal-fired power plants on French soil.
The French Ministry of Energy Transition confirmed the possibility of reopening the Saint-Avold power plant "taking into account the situation in Ukraine" and wanted the public to feel reassured about coal-fired power generation: "In any case, coal-fired power generation is less than 1% of the total electricity, and no Russian coal is used.”
In order to resume operations at the Saint-Avold coal power plant, the French government has stipulated that its former employees can be rehired, and 71 employees will be able to return to work. These employees can return to work on a voluntary basis from July 1, 2022 to December 31, 2023, under fixed-term contracts or deeds.
A cooling tower at a power plant (Reuters)
(Source: WeChat public account "International Energy Small Data" Author: E Small Data)
