Encourage individual and business customers to consume outside of peak days and times to lighten the grid and avoid load shedding measures, such as organized blackouts. That’s what EDF is working on thanks to an extensive communications plan, with a particularly tense winter approaching for the power system, which is facing a gas and nuclear power crisis. Thus, the company, which will soon be completely in the hands of the state, responds to the demand of the government, which has been pushing suppliers since this summer to revise their price list to bypass the winter.
“We are not experiencing a lack of energy, but a lack of strength. Between 6 pm and 8 pm, the demand for energy increases to very high levels. Should section this advice”Marc Benayoun, CEO of EDF, responsible for Customers, Services and Territories, explained during a press conference on Monday, October 10. “Load shedding will definitely prevent shedding at that time. We are doing very aggressive portfolio-wide actions to find sources of shortening. This will have a very important value in securing the electrical system.”confirmed.
As a reminder, the customer’s order response consists of Reducing the punctuality of electricity consumption in response to a signal that reflects a voltage on the electricity network, which must permanently ensure a balance between supply and demand for electricity. With this in mind, EDF has prepared offers to financially encourage its customers to defer their electricity consumption outside of these popular peak hours, which range from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the morning and around 7 p.m.
With regard to private customers, the electrician puts forward two options about regulated tariff offers. The most classic option is the off-peak/peak hours option, which allows customers to take advantage of premium rates mainly during peak hours at night. A particularly convenient option for all individuals who have a hot water tank and whose operation is programmed automatically at night. “Almost 10 million of our clients have this option in their contracts. We are targeting 3 million clients that we will promote with the benefits of peak/off-peak options”Said Lionel Zekri, responsible for the housing market.
Enhance display Tempo
The second option revolves around the Tempo offer, which already 200,000 customers have subscribed to. This is about three categories of days. 300 “blue” days where kilowatt-hours are at least 30% cheaper than the regulated tariff. Forty days white where a kilowatt-hour is at least 10% cheaper than TRV. And finally, 22 so-called “red” days during which a kilowatt-hour is much more expensive, that is, at least three times more expensive than TRV. During these red days, customers are encouraged to reduce and shift their consumption as much as possible between 10pm and 6am, the time period during which they benefit from an off-peak rate. Customers are then notified the day before the next day, and there can be no more than five consecutive red days.
For a long time, EDF did not have the right to promote this offer based on TRV with its customers under the rules of competition. “This year, the government has allowed us to campaign against our customers in the TRV tariff, but we do not have the right to do so towards potential customers,” Mark Benayoun says: EDF will take advantage of this new permission to connect with 5 million customers. “There will certainly be more Tempo customers at the end of the year than there were at the beginning.”Leader advances. So this Tempo view should replace the execution day EJP view
of its customers under the rules of competition. “This year, the government has allowed us to campaign against our customers in the TRV tariff, but we do not have the right to do so towards potential customers,” Mark Benayoun says: EDF will take advantage of this new permission to connect with 5 million customers. “There will certainly be more Tempo customers at the end of the year than there were at the beginning.”Leader advances.
Therefore, this Tempo offering should replace EJP’s offering, for Peak Day Clearance, which was introduced by EDF in 1982, but is no longer marketed. “This offer is currently available to 400,000 customers, but we can no longer provide it to those who order it”Lionel Zekri says: Unlike Tempo, this offer did not allow customers to take advantage of off-peak rates during peak days.
From an economic point of view, EDF ensures that Tempo’s offer is “neutral” for its rotation. “A Tempo client compared to a peak/off-peak client, doesn’t change anything. It is neutral”She insists the group is already heavily indebted.
A new, less restrictive offer for businesses
A historical supplier does similar work with its commercial customers and especially with manufacturers. The latter can then subscribe to a load separation offer in which they pledge not to call up a certain electrical power when they receive a signal from the EDF. Here again, the goal is to crush the peak consumption when the network is under tension. Companies that enter into this type of contract receive a fixed premium, which is added to a premium each time they effectively withdraw by releasing energy to the grid.
To this traditional load shedding offer, EDF recently added an ‘extra load dispensing’ offer, which is less restrictive for the customer. “The customer does not commit to erasable power. When he is warned the day before the next day, he can answer yes or no to the deletion request. We think we will be able to attract more customers and thus increase the load shedding potential by 200 megawatts”denotes the EDF difference.
In total, in the French market, the demand response potential is about 5 gigawatts, or roughly equivalent to five nuclear units. This power capacity includes contracts directly between RTE and electricity-intensive sites, as well as load separation offers from other electricity suppliers, for individuals and businesses.
Unleash the power of six nuclear chips
“Our goal is to increase this deposit by 20% or 1 gigawatt more”Mark Benayoun says: In total, demand response offers could account for 6 gigawatts this winter.
Asked about the cost of these procedures, the EDF estimated that “The biggest cost to us is doing nothing and getting unloaded”. This year, the company has thus directed all of its marketing efforts towards this sobriety approach, while previously a large portion was also devoted to acquiring new customers. What is no longer required now, Seeing 100,000 new customers knocking on EDF’s door every month since this summer.
This additional load separation is even more critical to the electrical system as EDF struggles to stick to its schedule to restart its reactors, due to the numerous strikes in September and longer repairs related to the corrosion problem. Thus, there will be a total of 6 gigawatts lost compared to the schedule announced at the end of summer.
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