The EDF Durance canal, or Durance factory canal (Canal EDF de la Durance) is the name of a coherent set of canals, dams and factories in France supplied by the water of the Durance from Serre-Ponçon to the Étang de Berre. The whole canal is 250 kilometers long, half of which is in Bouches-du-Rhône (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur), for a difference in altitude of more than 655 meters. It is used for irrigation, drinking water supply and electricity production. It was carried out by the Alpes III Hydraulic Equipment Region (REH) and is managed by the Électrcité de France Regional Hydraulic Production Group (GRPH) Méditerranée.

The canal has an average section of 20 m wide by 8 m deep.

Curbans Canal

Built between 1963 and 1965, and put into service in 1966, the Curbans canal is the part of the factory canal which carries part of the waters of the Durance from the compensation basin of the Serre-Ponçon dam from Curbans-La Saulce, via the Curbans power station.

Sisteron Canal

The Sisteron canal is the part of the factory canal which carries the waters of the Durance from the Curbans dam to the lake of the Saint-Lazare dam, in Sisteron.

Canal of Prayer (Oraison)

21.5 km long, the Oraison canal is the part of the factory canal which collects the waters of the Durance at the Escale dam (at level 432 m5) and conveys them to the Oraison hydroelectric power station. It receives the waters of the Bléone diverted by the Malijai dam.

Canal d’Oraison in Cadarache

The Oraison canal runs first underground (over 500 m), then in the Durance plain over 3.3 km. A canal bridge crosses the Durance: established on 26 arches, it measures 252 m long and 25 m wide.

EDF canal in Bouches-du-Rhône

The canal resumes its route in the Cadarache lock basin, a vast body of water covering 120 hectares.

The Durance and the canal flow in parallel in these first kilometers. The village of Saint-Paul-lès-Durance is surrounded by two rivers. Shortly after the Mirabeau bridge, the canal supplies the first of the five power stations which mark its final route. Shortly after passing through this EDF power plant, its waters supply the Peyrolles canal (agricultural canal).

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