Since 2008 the development of Smart Grids in France has given rise to 118 projects (demonstrators and associated R&D). France has invested 508 million euros [1] and, as such, is the leading country in terms of investments in the European Union, ahead of the UK (497 million euros) and Germany (363 million euros). As France is poised to deploy Smart Grids on a large scale this article retraces the considerable effort that has been focused on the demonstration.
La Défense – Photo credit : Flickr, Benoit Patelout in CC
Since 2011, a team of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission undertook to inventory, document and analyse all the demonstrator projects and the deployments of Smart Grids in Europe. Every year the JRC team sends out a detailed questionnaire to the organisations involved in the development of Smart Grids.
The resulting database covers 459 projects for a total investment of 3.15 billion euros, of which 238 projects have been completed (1.15 billion euros) and 221 projects are ongoing (2 billion euros). 1670 organisations in Europe have participated in these projects, with an average of six partners per project.
The data collected by the JRC team make it possible to map the emerging Smart Grid ecosystem in France.
With 101 Smart Grid project France is ranked 4th in Europe behind Germany, Denmark and Italy. Yet the country ranks first in terms of total investments with 16% of investments of European investments in the sector.
Whereas we note average investments per project in the region of 2.4 billion euros, France like the UK, has mainly concentrated on large-scale initiatives with an average budget of 5 million euros.
The most explored themes and applications in France through the demonstrators are the network management (which concentrated 29% of investments), smart homes (24%) and integration of renewables (21%). This thematic orientation is fairly similar to that of other countries.
Concerning the source of financing, France is conspicuous (like the UK) for its strong implication in the private sector representing 63% of investments. This situation contrasts with the situation in other countries where public investments (governments, public agencies, regulatory authorities and the European Commission) are predominant.
ITEMS International for Think Smartgrids