FRANCE THANKS CRO POWER UTILITY COMPANY FOR ASSISTANCE

PARIS, Jan 7 (Hina) - The director of the French national power utility company EDF, Francois Roussely, on Friday deeply thanked the representatives of 11 countries, Croatia included, for the assistance their power utility companies offered France in eliminating the consequences of a recent bout of bad weather. A group of engineers from Croatia's power utility company HEP arrived in France on January 3 to help in restoring power supply in the Bordeaux area in southern France, one of the regions which suffered the most damage during heavy recent storms. HEP's engineers brought by air route ten 800kVA generator units which restored power to several industry saw-mills and provided several thousand local households with temporary electricity. The Croatian generator units, which HEP used during the war years in Croatia, were the most powerful brought to France on this occasion, and were in the meantime purchased by France's EDF. French President Jacques Chirac forwarded letters of personal gratitude to the highest officials of the countries which came to EDF's aid, Roussely said today. EDF was assisted by 1,200 experts from Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Portugal, as well as from the Czech Republic, Morocco, and Croatia. (hina) ha