It’s a bit of a last stand for the Emile Huchet coal-fired power plant in Saint-Avold. On March 31, the production of electricity will stop definitively to put an end to this energy, which is more polluting than other types of equipment. However, at the start of the year, the plant is running at full speed, to enable make up for a shortage due to a series of maintenances launched in several nuclear power plants. Of the 700 hours of operation planned until the end of March, Emile Huchet will do 1,600.
Fear for next winter
On site, Jean-Pierre Damm, Force Ouvrière secretary, begins to anticipate the next winter season, which will have to be crossed without the Emile Huchet emergency solution. “There is therefore a risk of buying electricity in Germany, made from coal and lignite, on the backs of French citizens.”
If he regrets this alternative, he does not for all that throw away the German model. On the other side of the Rhine, coal-fired power stations remain in “cold reserve”, precisely to be reactivated in a few days if this type of shortage were to also affect Germany. “I therefore regret the haste“, confides Jean-Pierre Damm, even if he recognizes the ecological impact of this plant. Within 2 and a half years, its conversion to biomass should be completed.