Maintaining the transmission system is essential for ensuring that everyone has access to electricity around the clock and every single day of the week.
RTE rationalises the use of its existing infrastructure in order to improve grid performance, to prolong grid service life, to lower costs and to minimise its effects on the environment. While making sure that it is equipped to do so. For example with project OLLA (Overhead Lines Lifespan Assessment), RTE is able to estimate the level of damage of overhead power lines conductors, and thus determine when is the right time to replace them. As a result, RTE is able to ensure the reliability of its infrastructures at a lower cost.
More than 4 000 RTE workers (half of its workforce) are constantly being called upon to identify potential failures and repair any faults. Night and day, in stormy or freezing weather conditions and even on Christmas day, our 170 maintenance teams – spread across the entire country – respond incredibly quickly to restore power as swiftly as they can.
Proud of their role as providers of a public service, these women and men have built up a unique set of maintenance skills for working on live equipment: they repair equipment without de-energising it and without depriving anyone of electrical current. The storm for which the winter of 1999-2000 will be remembered involved them in a huge mechanical upgrade project that lasted for 15 years.
Maintenance is now becoming more high-tech and drones are being used to monitor infrastructure in inaccessible areas more effectively, for example.
Increasing use of renewables; unequal distribution of generation and consumption areas; average age of equipment (50 years): the transmission system is facing challenges from all sides, thereby requiring major changes.
RTE is in the front line when it comes to fighting climate change. Increasingly violent storms, floods and heatwaves are threatening the grid, which has to become more resilient in order to maintain security of supply. In addition, RTE is actively involved in the integration of renewables whilst also doing its utmost to reduce its infrastructure’s footprint on biodiversity and the landscape.
A new set of tools, largely digital, is being used to rationalise the way in which the grid is operated. More flexible systems such as virtual "RINGO” lines are being developed to provide round-the-clock access to high-quality and affordable electricity.
La transition énergétique : comment assurer l’alimentation électrique de tous alors que certains moyens de production sont intermittents ? (éolien, photovoltaïque, etc.)
Digital technology supporting the grid: SmartGridsSmartGrids rely on digital tools to rationalise the use of existing infrastructure, to combine economic logic with technical challenges, and to get the best out of Europe’s energy mix. RTE is investing in Research & Development to design new tools and software for enhancing the efficiency of the electricity market and for making the power system smarter. The company is also supporting a number of pilot projects that will help SmartGrids move from the trial phase to large-scale roll-out by working not only alongside all players in Europe’s power system but also alongside new partners from the digital world. |
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By comparing the amounts being considered for investment with the power output of each country, the amounts being committed to France’s ten-year network development plan (SDDR) lie firmly within the bottom end of the range: France is one of the countries that will need to invest the least.
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