PARIS - Electricite de France [EDF.UL] said on Thursday it was investing more than 320 million euros ($402.2 million) to modernise its fossil fuel-fired power stations in France to bolster supplies during peak demand.
EDF President Pierre Gadonneix told a board meeting on Wednesday that the investment, to restart four oil-fired units and build two new gas turbines of 500 megawatts (MW), would add an additional 3,100 MW of generation capacity by 2008.
The EDF board had also agreed to shut seven coal-fired stations, among the oldest of its power plants.
"These means of production reinforces EDF's capacity to meet peak demand needs of its clients, and will be only used for a limited number of hours a year," EDF said in a statement.
France, normally Europe's top power exporter, faced a power crunch during an cold snap this winter that boosted demand to an all time high of 86,000 MW and forced EDF to import 3 percent of its needs from Germany and Spain.
EDF relies on a fleet of nuclear reactors that accounts for more than 60 percnet of its 100,000 MW of capacity to provide relatively carbon emission free power. It relies on fossil-fuel fired or so-called thermal production, the most polluting type of generation, for peak demand.
Thermal generation, accounts for 28 percent of capacity while renewables, mainly hydro-power, for 19 percent.
The French electricity grid operator RTE has repeatedly warned that France needs to build new power plants by the end of the decade or risk blackouts as demand rises.
The two new turbines will be in the Paris region.
Bernard Dupraz, head of EDF generation and engineering, said in March that the two 250 MW turbines will be gas-fired.
Two of the oil-fired units to be demothballed were at Porcheville, west of Paris, one at Cordemais in the west of France and another at Aramon in the southeast.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
