The urgency and opportunities for demand side flexibility in France

France’s smart grid industry association Think Smartgrids could play a key role as the entity to manage demand side flexibility in France, says managing director Régis Le Drézen.

Le Drézen, who counts experience from the country’s three key electricity players – EDF, Enedis and RTE – pointed to the urgency for the development of demand side flexibility in France to manage the growing penetration of renewables and to meet decarbonisation targets.

And it could be deployed as soon as 2024, drawing on the flexibility in tertiary buildings, where the opportunity is greatest, with that in residential buildings following in 2025 or 2026.

By 2030 residential and tertiary buildings are projected to be able to offer 3GW of flexibility from heating, hot water and other sources, he said.

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Electric vehicles are another source and by 2035, with the projected 15 million electric vehicles on the road, their consumption could approach 30TWh.

In an exclusive interview at Enlit Europe 2023 in Paris, Le Drézen says the challenge for demand side flexibility is the large number of stakeholders involved, including the TSO, DSO, aggregators, manufacturers, etc., but none have a whole system perspective – which is where Think Smartgrids could come in as the entity in charge of its delivery.

“Thanks to the representativeness of members we have digital solutions across the entire value chain from production to consumption.”

As a first step towards this role, the association has completed a report on the market and the challenges to scaling demand side flexibility in France.

A second report addressing technical and economic issues and standards for mass deployment is due to be released by the end of Q1.

Think Smartgrids also is working with the French territories on the deployment of digital solutions to reduce consumption in public buildings.

“With these three concrete examples we could have a real impact to deploy flexibility,” he said.

“We need to be very quick and anticipate in the roadmap to develop mass-scale digital solutions in 2024.”