A 100 billion euro plan to modernize the French electricity network

“In the order of 100 billion”

This ten-year network development plan (SDDR) “aims to guarantee that the public electricity transmission network is adapted to the energy policy objectives set by the State”, explains RTE.

In 2019, it planned a budget of 33 billion euros by 2035.

Since then, the State has redefined its orientations, underlines the public group: relaunch of nuclear power, acceleration of renewables, reindustrialization via the development of low-carbon industrial zones.

“In first analysis, the investment prospects between now and 2040 are of the order of 100 billion euros, including the renewal of infrastructures (...), today RTE's leading investment item”, note the plan.

These expenses include the electricity transmission tax (Turpe), paid by consumers via their bills. They are in addition to those planned by Enedis, which manages the medium and low voltage distribution network (96 billion over 2022-40).

Aging equipment

France has 106.000 km of lines from 63.000 to 400.000 volts, including 6.000 km underground, and 2.800 electrical substations.

More than 20% of airlines are 70 years old, and the average general age is 55 years (higher than other European networks).

Their construction went through three periods: after the Second War for reconstruction (225.000 volt network); from the 70s with the boom in centralized production (coal and especially nuclear) and 400.000 volts; then from the 2010s with the energy transition.

However, from 85-90 years old, the equipment must be replaced due to obsolescence, we note at RTE.

This renewal program is already underway. A “corrosion plan” has been underway since 2020 to replace the pylons.

Resisting global warming

The issue concerns future works, but even more so existing equipment. Temperature rises and storms are a subject for the resistance of lines, flooding for electrical substations.

After the storms of 1999, RTE launched a fifteen-year “mechanical security program” worth 2,7 billion euros. It currently provides resistance to winds of 180 km/h, and “showed its effectiveness during the passage of storms Ciaran and Domingos in 2023”.

RTE currently plans to give priority to renewing structures that combine issues of dilapidation and adaptation to global warming.

New consumers

Another part of the project, an “unprecedented” connection program, to electrify new industries (battery factories, etc.) in Dunkirk, Fos-sur-Mer, Le Havre-Port-Jérôme, etc. Objective, to strengthen the network high voltage before 2030.

For land-based renewable production (wind and photovoltaic), the movement is already at work, with connection infrastructure expected throughout the country before 2035.

For nuclear power, it is first planned to connect four reactors (Penly and Gravelines) during the second part of the 2030 decade, as well as future “small” reactors (SMR) currently being designed, notes RTE.

For offshore wind power, four parks were connected at the end of 2023, but a clear acceleration is planned with 18 GW (around twenty parks) to be put into service by 2035, implying "an industrial connection program".

challenges

“It is no longer possible to postpone structural reinforcements on the network at the risk of not being able to connect the projects,” warns RTE.

The network manager also calls on stakeholders to better anticipate in order to pool equipment, in this consultation intended in particular for territories, material suppliers, project leaders, etc.

It will be necessary "an industrial plan to strengthen the capacity of European industry in general, and French industry in particular, to produce the necessary equipment", adds RTE, which notes that delivery times have tripled between 2021 and 2023 for cables or transformers.

Once the consultation closes, on April 30, the RTE plan will be submitted in particular to the State, the Energy Regulatory Commission and the Environmental Authority.