“One, two, three, let's turn off the lights”, Roger Gicquel told viewers of the 8 p.m. newspaper on Thursday, March 17, 1977, on TF1. “What do we see now? ”, he asks Michel Chevalet, who was present at the same moment at the center of Dispatching National : “Well, it's very clear”, replies the latter, “the balance sheet for all of France at the moment (.../...) is almost 175 thousand kW (175 MW) in electricity savings”.

Through this experiment conducted in real time, the French were shown the usefulness of reducing consumption on the electrical system and the benefits of a sober energy system in the face of soaring oil prices. Every viewer in front of their small screen that evening was able to feel responsible for their energy consumption.

For those of you who turned off switches at the invitation of Roger Gicquel, know that you participated in the first large-scale diffuse erasure experiment.

Simple explanation of what an erasure is

One Electrical erasure therefore consists, for a consumer, in reducing consumption by turning off electrical equipment, for example an electric heater or a water heater, on a signal sent by the dispatching of the national electrical network.

The objective of the operation is to reduce or stop the electricity drawn from the network at a given moment during a defined period of time. In return for his action, the consumer receives A remuneration Or gets a reduction in his subscription, which is the same thing.

A practice implemented since the creation of EDF

Industrial cancellation as early as 1950 to manage a fleet that is mostly hydraulic

Electrical erasure is not a new idea. As early as the 1950s, EDF signed contracts with major metallurgical manufacturers in order to encourage them to consume when hydroelectric power plants produce more than needed, and conversely to reduce the consumption of their industrial equipment, or even to stop it, during peak consumption. At the time, hydroelectric power plants produced 50% of the electrical energy in France.

The fading today to compensate for the intermittency of the wind and the sun

Today, with the development of renewables, wind farms and photovoltaic power plants, the electrical system again needs to develop erasure capabilities to cope with The intermittency of renewable energies without using thermal power plants state of the art.

The challenge is the development of a low-energy system, not to deal with soaring oil prices, but to reduce CO2 emissions and limit climate change.

EJP tariffs, the heyday of electrical erasure

There are essentially two types of erasure: industrial erasures And the diffuse erasures.

The first, as indicated above, were created in the 1950s to compensate for the intermittency of the majority of hydroelectric power plants in the installed park. The latter were created in 1965 with the EDF Tempo rate, which is an off-season rate of Type: full hours/off-peak hours, and developed in 1982 with EJP rates (Erasing Peak Days), an option of EDF's historic rates.

It should be noted that at their peak, EJP tariffs made it possible to contract an erasable capacity of 6,500 MW thanks to strong pricing incentives that have since passed.

A renewed need for erasure with the liberalization of electricity markets

RTE, new pilot for balancing the electrical system

The gradual opening of energy markets to competition starting in February 1999 and the creation of the Electricity Transmission System Operator, RTE, were carried out under the impetus of the European Commission and its directive 2003-54-EC.

RTE inherited the skills of dispatching and balancing the network, previously provided by EDF, and therefore needed to be able to mobilize energy reserves to manage the electrical system.

A new market: the adjustment mechanism

That is why the adjustment mechanism was created at that time to allow RTE to buy energy from producers or large consumers. Thanks to this device, On a day-to-day basis, RTE buys the energy capacities necessary for the balance between production and consumption of the network.

With the gradual end of EDF's historic tariffs and the implementation of the Energy exchange Powernext in 2001, then its takeover by EEX in 2008, the valorization of production was mainly achieved through the sale of energy in MWh.

Missing money or how to valorize state-of-the-art power plants?

The need then emerged to valorize installed production capacities and no longer just to valorize the energy traded on the markets. Indeed, with the evolution of electricity uses, peaks in electricity consumption were becoming more and more important.

On February 6, 2012, a historic record was reached with 96,291 MW, then again on February 8 with 102,098 MW of extracted power, for an installed production park of 128,680 MW.

However, at the same time, the absence of explicit remuneration (Missing Money) of installed capacity has led to a decrease in investments in state-of-the-art power plants and therefore to an increase in the risk to network security.

Source: Futura-Sciences

The erasure capabilities market

That is why, in 2008, the Champsaur Commission was created to propose changes to these liberalized electricity markets. Jean Bergougnoux, former CEO of EDF, participated in this commission, who, in the 1980s, was responsible for creating the EJP tariffs.

For example, in its 2010 report, the Commission proposed the establishment of new mechanisms, including the creation of a erasure capabilities market, which, after more than five years of gestation, was born in 2016.

Calls for tenders Erasing RTE

Dealing with peak consumption

However, in 2012, RTE faced strong tensions with four consumption peaks of more than 96,000 MW. And as a result, without waiting for the capacity market, RTE launched calls for tenders in winter 2012 to cancel consumption and local production, first in Brittany, then at the national level.

The objective for RTE is to increase the volume of tenders submitted to the adjustment mechanism, mentioned above, via calls for tenders by paying a capacity bonus in €/MW in addition to the energy remuneration in €/MWh offered on the adjustment mechanism.

Effacement tenders have been taking hold in the French energy landscape for almost 10 years.

Since then, every year, RTE has been organizing tenders to meet its own needs for balancing the electrical system, in particular: the cancellation tender (AOE), the rapid and complementary reserve tender (RR/RC).

It is important to specify here that the capacity market, for its part, addresses the entire market and not only the need for RTE. In fact, all so-called mandatory actors, typically suppliers, must acquire or possess as many capacity certificates as required by regulations in view of the abundant energy consumption of their customers.

A market that has grown by 300% since 2020

The Effacement 2022 Call for Tenders, the results of which were published on 8 November last year, allowed RTE to contract 2,403 MW. A volume up sharply compared to previous years: 1,509 MW in 2021 and 770 MW in 2020. This growth is explained by the decrease in the number of thermal power plants and by the desire to accelerate the energy transition.

How to participate?

In conclusion, it should be noted that all consumers, individuals, professionals or very large consumers, can participate in these tenders organized by RTE, even those connected to public distribution networks.

The Linky counter In particular, allows consumers who are equipped with it to subscribe, with certain suppliers, to offers adapted to the erasure of consumption. To do this, do not hesitate to contact SirEnergies who will assist you in choosing the best operator taking into account your consumption habits.