Sale of the hydroelectric power stations of Thermphos France (2009)

In 2001 Thermphos, a producer of phosphorus and phosphorus derivatives, acquired a produc-tion plant for phosphorus oxide and other phosphorus derivatives in the French department Savoie. Among the acquired assets were three small hydroelectric power stations with a total capacity of 6 MW. The power stations supplied the plant with electricity and delivered all surplus production to the market.


Each of the three power stations is made up from an infrastructure that is spread over many miles and that consists of the following elements:

• a water basin for collecting river water at high altitude
• a steel pipe (penstoke) transporting the water from the basin to a location that provides a deep vertical drop and from there under ever increasing pressure to the turbine buil-ding
• a turbine builiding where the pressurized water is lead through a turbine and the elec-tricity is being generated
• a cable that transports the electricity from the turbine building to the phosphorus plant
• a discharge transporting the used water to the nearest river.

One of the power stations has its turbine building and water discharge located on the site of the phosphorus plant. The electricity of all three stations is brought together in a switching station that is also located on the plant site. The switching station supplies power to the plant and delivers all surplus electricity to the grid. Most of the facilities described date back to he first half of the twentieth century.

Thermphos decided in 2003 to sell the three powerstations. Bridgecraft was retained as lead manager with support from Michel Gobaud of A3I as broker and technical adviser. The pro-ject required the execution of a number of preparatory stept that were necessary to transform the power stations into saleable assets. The following preparations had to be made:

• reaching an agreement with the local municipality that had both public and civil autho-rity to block a sale
• reaching an agreement with Total, owner of the land underneath and around the plant site
• convincing unionized plant workers that the sale of the powerstations was not a first step towards an overall dismantling of the phosphorus plant
• reaching an agreement with the regional environmental authorities and with four diffe-rent government bodies on the département level
• reaching an agreement with power company EDF and grid managers ARD and RTE about the technical and administrative separation of the electrical facilities of the phosphorus plant and the powerstations
• developing a plan and gaining administrative approval for the transfer of the powersta-tion on the plant site to a new location outside
• acquiring land and easements underneath those parts of the penstoke for which they did not exist; fifteen separate transactions had to be closed, one with the grandchildren of an owner that had died long before.

The three hydroelectric powerstations were sold in May 2009 to the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône, owner among other things of 19 large waterpower stations in the river Rhône.