Change of scale: France currently has more than 1 million electricity production centers on its territory, up from around 61,000 in 2010. The total power of the park is now close to 150 gigawatts (GW), or around 26 more that fourteen years ago.
This reduction is mainly the business of the public distribution network manager, Enedis. The 100% subsidiary of the public group EDF takes care of low and medium voltage lines, which reach homes. Specifically, it lists 1,026,854 production centers connected to its network throughout the territory, according to the count carried out in the third quarter and reported on October 23.
Solar energy already covers more than one million sites, of which more than 617,000 are intended for self-consumption, that is, for individuals or companies with their own photovoltaic panels. In terms of power, always on the Enedis scale, it is more balanced: solar energy and onshore wind now represent respectively 20.5 GW and almost 19 GW; compared to 0.3 GW and 4.4 GW in 2010.
“Enedis is preparing to manage a more complex system, because it is more decentralized” declared Cedric Boissier, its director of the “Acceleration of renewable energies” project. To decarbonize the country by mid-century, so that it progressively gets rid of fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal), the company foresees a pace of at least 5 GW more renewable electricity each year.
“The risk is that individual self-consumption leads to forms of indifference to the solidarity offered by the electrical grid, with many individuals increasing their own autonomy, considers Gilles Debizet, professor-researcher in planning and transition at the University of Grenoble-Alpes. Hence the political challenge of also developing collective self-consumption. [impliquant plusieurs usagers]. »
New challenges
The profusion of small installations has “necessarily an impact on operational activities” of Enedis, emphasizes Boissier. With “Many more files, we need to adapt our equipment and our information systems”continue. In February, the 40,000-employee company announced 1,600 permanent hires for the current year, as well as 1,200 work-study contracts.
Given their participation in the electricity produced, solar energy (4.4% in 2023) and wind energy (10.3%) already pose new challenges. Its electricity, intermittent depending on the sun or the wind, cannot be stored on a large scale, unlike large hydraulic dams. “It is now also increasingly necessary to ensure that electricity consumption corresponds to the times when renewable and low-carbon electricity is produced. summarizes Mathias Laffont, deputy general delegate of the French Electrical Union. Even if that means intentionally displacing some consumption to equalize it. »
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