POWER GENERATION IN FRANCE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 9, 24 March 1947, Page 3

POWER GENERATION IN FRANCE

NEW RESERVOIR UNDER CONSTRUCTION •

At the present time hydro-elec-tric reservoirs in Franve .have a storage capacity of about a thousand million kilowatt hours.

In the most difficult days of this winter the use of these reservoirs has enabled the provision of 12 million kilowatt-hours a day, out of a total production of 84 million kilowatt hours, counting thermic and hydro-electric production. The plan now being put into effect by “Electricite de France” provides for three times the present number of reservoirs.

Big reservoirs are under construction—or soon will be—at Tignes, on the Isere, at Bort on the Dorogne, at Parelout, in the Tarn basin, and at at-le-Chateau in the Vienne basin. Extensive . installations to control lake levels in the Beaufortin and Neouvielie mountains are also being built. The planning and construction of further reservoirs are also under consideration by “Electricite de France.” Care will be taken that changes in water courses shall not be too sudden or extreme. At the moment no really largescale projects such as Langogne in the upper Allier valley, which would change the whole river system in the Lozere mountains, are contemplated.