Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Vernes hydroelectric power plant, located in Livet-et-Gavet, Isère, was built between 1916 and 1918 to power a steelworks producing synthetic cast iron via electric furnaces. Founded by Charles Albert Keller, a pioneer in electrometallurgy, it played a key role during the First World War by producing shells (120,000 tons between 1914 and 1918), meeting military needs and filling the unavailability of factories in the north and east. Its architecture, signed Florentin Nublat, combines industrial robustness and neat aesthetics, with glass windows and a monumental staircase.

The power plant, equipped with Escher Wyss turbines with a total power of 4.27 MW, was powered by an underground tunnel connected to the Livet Canal. After 1918, it supplied Grenoble with electricity and became a symbol of white coal, highlighted at the 1925 International Exhibition. Nationalized in 1946, it remained active until 2020, when it was replaced by Romanche Gavet. Ranked a Historic Monument in 1994 and labeled "Twentieth Century Heritage", it will be redeveloped by 2024.

Charles Albert Keller, a visionary industrialist, developed innovations like the electric arc furnace, transforming the Romanche valley into a major industrial pole. The power plant illustrates the alliance between technical progress, bold architecture (basin of discharge in fountain, forced pipes of 2.50 m in diameter) and geopolitical context, marking the history of hydraulic energy and metallurgy in France.

The final shutdown in 2020 marked the end of an era for the six power plants in the valley, replaced by a modern project. The site, a public property, retains a unique heritage value: the only hydropower plant classified as a Historical Monument in France, it bears witness to the golden age of the Alpine industry and its architectural heritage, between industrial fortress and Italian villa.

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