Centrale de Rateau Schneider
THE ABANDONED POWER PLANT IN FRANCE
‘Centrale de Rateau Schneider’ is an abandoned power plant in France. It was built in 1958 close to a coalmine. It was expended in the 1970s and eventually closed in 2015.
This coal-fired power plant opened on January 14, 1958. The configuration of two turbines made by ‘Cie Electro-Mecanique’ was expanded in September 1970 with the addition of a Rateau-Schneider generator set, bringing the total capacity up to half a gigawatt.
The two original turbines were eventually decommissioned in the early 1990s.
The SNET, or ‘National Electricity and Thermal Company’ owned the site. In June 2008, SNET became a subsidiary of the German group E.ON. The name originates from the Latin word aeon, derived from the Greek aion, which means age. Today, It operates in over 30 countries and has over 50 million customers.
In 2011, the new owner announced that, as of 2013, they will have to close five of their coal-fired power plants in France. The affected plants are over 40 years old. 535 jobs are lost nation-wide, including the 86 employees from this plant. The reason for the closures are the high price of coal and the inadequacy of the old plants. Also, they do not comply with the new pollution standards.
The Rateau-Schneider set ceased operations in 2015. A voluntary departure plan and an internal reclassification system were made for the employees of the plant. I visited the power plant in 2019. Follow this link for more abandoned power plants.
