Climate, decarbonization: industry facing the challenge of its electrification

Steel industry, refineries, chemicals, cement works, 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, i.e. one " doubling" of their current need, said Friday Jean-Philippe Bonnet, deputy director of the strategy and prospective division of RTE, manager of the French electricity network at high and very
high tension.

Already the works are starting. The most emblematic are located in Dunkirk, Fos-sur-Mer, at the mouth of the Seine and in the "corridor of chemistry" around Lyon: four maritime or river port areas inherited from the industrialization of the postwar boom period.

Ongoing investments on these sites to reduce CO2 emissions should both enable traditional industries, including ArcelorMittal and TotalEnergies, to modernize, and other new ones to set up.

In Dunkirk, a battery factory is thus planned by Verkor. The town hall also confirmed to AFP contacts with the Taiwanese Prologium for another battery factory. A photovoltaic solar panel site has just been announced by Carbon in Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône).

Like "one million people"

But the only project of the Gravithy consortium in Fos-sur-Mer, which notably brings together Engie, Plug, and Primetals for a hydrogen iron treatment plant, needs as much electricity as "a city of one million inhabitants", emphasizes Rachid Otmani, deputy director of the RTE customer division.

"How to adapt the electrical network?" asks Mr. Bonnet, anxious to avoid bottlenecks as much as overcapacity on high voltage lines.

To support this challenge, RTE is counting on total investments of 1,5 to 2 billion euros in the four zones, but "in stages": by first reinforcing the installed network, before embarking on heavy investments linked to new sources of production, nuclear power plants or renewable energies.

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 network in the area cannot support more than 2 GW", adds Mr. Bonnet.

As a first step, RTE plans to reinforce the existing 225.000 volt network. Then to create a new heavy infrastructure of 400.000 volt substations after 2030.

In Fos-sur-Mer, where the electricity network dates from the 1960s and has changed very little since then, the need for electricity is estimated at 4 or 5 GW in 2030 against less than 1 GW currently.

There too a 400.000 volt infrastructure is necessary. A power supply project from the Rhône Valley was presented to local elected officials in mid-March. "It would supply the entire Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region", underlines Mr. Bonnet, and not only the industrial pole.

"Flexibility"

More generally, RTE considers that the current rule consisting in allocating capacities in order of arrival of requests from manufacturers, must be "relaxed"; the manager hopes for a decree to this effect "before the summer".

"We want to be able to prioritize projects with the help of the prefects, according to certain criteria of decarbonization or maturity of the industrial project", adds Mr. Bonnet. In order to avoid blocking electrical capacities for certain projects which will not materialize for 6 or 7 years.

The network manager would also like to encourage the "flexibility" of the installations: thus the electrolyzers intended to produce carbon-free hydrogen "must be able to stop, start again, take advantage of the opportunities of renewable energies, and follow Ecowatt alerts", comments Mr. Bonnet.