Rising energy prices: how industrial sites are being reorganized

We are far from the quarry of the Obelix menhirs, where the stones were broken, in fact, on the elbows. Today, quarrying requires a lot of energy. Mostly electricity, as the sector has also embarked on energy transformation by moving away from fossil fuels. “Our machines used to run mostly on liquid fuels,” says Xavier Brefeil, Purchasing Director at Basaltes. Today we have transferred most of them to electricity. »

With about a hundred quarries scattered throughout France, the group produces 13 million tons of aggregate per year in the form of pebbles of various sizes, as well as sand used, among other things, for road construction. An extremely energy intensive activity as one meter blocks must be extracted directly from the rock before being crushed into small pieces ranging in size from a few centimeters to less than a millimeter.

Count that can be multiplied by ten

“All these operations require electricity, a lot of electricity,” continues Xavier Brefeil. For example, our Voutré quarry in Mayenne, which with 350 hectares and sixty employees represents our largest site, consumes 10 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year. This is one fifth of the consumption of the entire group. »

This is usually an account of 600,000 euros. Except that with prices skyrocketing, the site’s management calculated that it could be increased tenfold to reach 6 million euros in 2023. “With government assistance, it will probably be reduced to 3 million euros,” he says. But it’s still a hell of a hole in the budget. »

More than half (56%) of French industrial companies are particularly vulnerable to rising electricity prices in 2022, according to an INSEE study released on Thursday. Worse, 7% of them (as well as 3% of service companies) have decided to cut their production or are planning to do so for the same reasons. And 1% is thinking of temporarily interrupting it! This could lead to a 1.5% fall in industrial production for the year as a whole.

Work only at night

A decision that Basaltes has already taken on two of its largest sites: in Voutre, as well as in Vignate, a little higher in Normandy, between the departments of Orne and Calvados. “For the first three months of 2023, prices will remain so high that it will at times be more expensive to produce than not to produce,” notes Xavier Brefeil. Therefore, we have decided to completely suspend Voutré for the entire month of January. Then resume at least in February-March. For Vignats we chose a different strategy. We are currently in discussions with the social partners and the site’s 50 staff to work only at night, which will also protect us from the risk of cuts. »

For the rest of the quarries, most of the contracts for the supply of electricity were concluded before the crisis, which so far protects them from inflation. Basaltes also signed a load shedding agreement with RTE, which operates the power grid. If tensions arise, some of its venues can interrupt production for a few hours for a fee. “Last Monday, several of them stopped between 7 and 9 am, even at 11 am,” says Xavier Brefeil. But also between 18:00 and 20:00. »

Forced to revise their prices upwards

However, the group has made numerous investments in recent years to cut its bills. “The aim has already been to make the machines less energy-intensive and less polluting,” notes the purchasing director, who elaborates: “11 million euros for the Voutre site alone in 2021 to replace shunting diesel engines with equivalents powered by electricity. Or dump trucks, i.e. big trucks filled with rocks, a giant conveyor belt (jogging track 1.5 km long), electric too. »

However, despite all these measures, Basaltes will have no choice but to raise prices even further in 2023, while shrinking its margins like most of its competitors. Already this year, the group has had to revise its prices twice, by 5% each time, to respond to skyrocketing energy prices passed on to them by its suppliers and subcontractors, in particular nitrates used for explosives and crushers . spare parts. Which, unfortunately, temporarily blocks any desire for additional investments in the energy transition.