EDF to demolish Pelissier power station

Electricite de France (EDF) manages the post-operations activities at the power station, which finished operations in March 2006, and has recently received permits from the city of Albi to begin the demolition works of the chimney stack and the power house.

Plans are to begin demolition of the 125-meter chimney by January 2010 and to demolish the powerhouse by July of the same year. Works are expected to last about two years, with completion tentatively scheduled for late 2012.

As for the bidding process and contracts, two tenders are expected to be opened: one for the demolition of the chimney and another for the removal of asbestos. Plans are to have complete deconstruction and environmental remediation of the site by 2013, where a new power facility is expected to be erected, although further details of this project are not available yet.

The Pelissier Power station, located in the south of France in the Midi-Pyrénées region, is a 250-MW, three-stage Rateau-Schneider steam turbine power plant commissioned in 1968 and closed in 2006 because of the high investment costs that were required to reduce pollution emissions from burning pulverized coal and fuel oil. Today, the site is administered by EDF's Post-Exploitation Center.