Heavy industry’s pursuit of CO2 is tantamount to replacing coal-fired furnaces with electric furnaces and electrifying other factories, putting French power grid operator RTE under high tension for years to come.
Steel industry, refineries, chemicals, cement, fertilizers: the activities that emit the most greenhouse gases located in the four largest industrial regions of France will need 10 to 12 GW of additional capacity by 2030 (the equivalent of 12 Nueclair reactors), a “doubling” of its current need, said Friday Jean-Philippe Bonnet, deputy director of strategy and prospective pole of RTE, manager of the French high and very high voltage electricity network.
The works are already beginning. The most emblematic are in Dunkirk, Fos-sur-Mer, at the mouth of the Seine and in the “chemical corridor” around Lyon: four maritime or river port spaces inherited from the industrialization of the post-war boom.
Ongoing investments at these sites to reduce CO2 emissions should allow for the modernization of traditional industries, including ArcelorMittal and TotalEnergies, and the installation of new ones. In Dunkirk, Verkor plans a battery factory. The council has also confirmed contacts with Taiwan’s Prologium for another battery factory. Carbon has just announced a photovoltaic solar panel site in Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône).
Like “a million people”
But the only project of the Gravithy consortium in Fos-sur-Mer, which brings together Engie, Plug and Primetals in particular for a hydrogen and iron treatment plant, needs as much electricity as “a city of a million inhabitants”, highlights Rachid Otmani, deputy director of RTE’s client division. “How to adapt the electrical network?” asks Jean-Philippe Bonnet, eager to avoid both bottlenecks and excess capacity on power lines.
To support this challenge, RTE has total investments of 1,500 to 2,000 million euros in the four areas, but “in stages”: first by reinforcing the installed network, before embarking on heavy investments linked to new sources of production, nuclear power plants or renewable energy. In Dunkirk, demand could grow to 5 GW in 2030 – the equivalent of the power of 5 nuclear reactors – given all the projects announced in the region. “However, the current electricity grid in the area cannot support more than 2 GW,” adds Jean-Philippe Bonnet.
As a first step, RTE plans to reinforce the existing 225,000 volt network. Then create a new heavy infrastructure of 400,000 volt substations after 2030. In Fos-sur-Mer, where the electricity grid dates from the 1960s and has changed very little since then, the need for electricity is estimated at 4 or 5 GW in 2030 versus less than 1 GW today. A 400,000 volt infrastructure is also needed there. A Rhône Valley power supply project was presented to local elected officials in mid-March. “It would supply the entire Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region,” stresses Jean-Philippe Bonnet, and not just the industrial pole.
“Flexibility”
More generally, RTE believes that the current rule of allocating capacities on a first-come, first-served basis of manufacturers’ requests should be “relaxed”; The manager expects a decree in this sense “before the summer.”
“We want to be able to prioritize projects with the help of the prefects, according to certain criteria of decarbonisation or maturity of the industrial project”, adds Jean-Philippe Bonnet. To avoid blocking electrical capacities for certain projects that will not materialize for another 6 or 7 years.
The network manager also wants to promote the “flexibility” of the facilities: thus, the electrolysers intended to produce carbon-free hydrogen “must be able to stop, restart, take advantage of renewable energy opportunities and follow Ecowatt alerts”. says Jean-Philippe Bonnet.
Source: BFM TV
