Grid reliability
French peak power demand nearly 50 percent electric heating
Like the Germans, the French produce a lot of interesting data about their power sector. A recent study revealed the main culprit behind the country's all-time peak power demand in 2012, when France surpassed 100 GW for the first (and still only) time.
French grid operator RTE publishes a lot of good stuff, including in English, but today I’m going to focus on an overview in French. The chart below shows peak electricity demand with (red area) and without (the blue area) electric heat.
French peak power demand
In a recent article, Renewables International reported on the discrepancy between peak and base demand in France and Germany, with the French having to cover a much wider range. But factor out electric heating, and the French electricity load looks fairly unwavering, generally staying within the 40-55 GW range.
In February 2012, we see that peak demand was around 55 GW without heat, with electric heating bringing total demand into the mid-90s. Perhaps because of the low resolution in the chart, the absolute peak demand of 102.1 GW is not shown, though the peak is indicated in another chart on page 9 of the study. That low resolution would also explain why the absolute low of closer to 30 GW is also not indicated in the chart above.
The more even the grid load is, the easier it is to meet that load in general. In a way, the French have an easy task in offsetting peak demand – they simply have to switch from electric heating. It is easy enough to lower heating demand (through Passive House architecture, which is also known as nearly zero-energy homes), and there are numerous ways to get heat, including from renewables.
But my French sources say such a transition should not be underestimated in France. Even homes that have a central heating system not based on electricity often also have auxiliary electric heaters. In Brittany and parts of Provence, I am told that EDF and RTE now send text messages to customers with electric heaters asking for the systems to be cut off during peak load hours, but there is no automated control. “And what will we do if we get an Arctic vortex like in North America this month,” one French colleague asked – a question that could, of course, be asked for Germany as well.
France has a total dispatchable capacity of around 115 GW, which should be sufficient to meet 100 GW of demand. Nonetheless, France imports up to 4 GW of electricity from Germany during such peaks. (Craig Morris)