Glossary

Association of Electricity Distributors in France

French Agency for the Ecological Transition, formerly the French Environment and Energy Management Agency

Power that would have been consumed if temperatures had been the same as reference temperatures, and if there was no 29th day in February for leap years

Accès Régulé à l'Electricité Nucléaire Historique, or Regulated Access to Incumbent Nuclear Electricity: Refers to suppliers’ right to buy electricity from EDF at a regulated price, in quantities determined by French energy regulator CRE

An electricity market player that has a contract with RTE under which it must settle the cost of any differences between energy injected and withdrawn, as recorded after the fact, across the entire portfolio for which it is responsible

Mechanism designed to ensure that, at any given time, RTE has sufficient power reserves it can activate if supply and demand do not balance

Balancing Inter TSO: Mechanism through which transmission system operators exchange balancing energy for system balancing. It is available for France-Spain and France-UK exchanges.

Ratio between the electrical energy effectively generated over a given period and the energy that would have been produced at nameplate capacity over the same period

Combined-cycle gas turbine

CO₂-eq (CO₂ equivalent) emissions correspond to the aggregate of all greenhouse gas emissions (CO₂, CH₄,
N₂O, PFC, HFC, SF₆, NF₃) expressed in tonnes of CO₂ equivalent, i.e. taking into account their specific global warming potential (GWP) over a 100-year timeframe

Difference between consumption recorded in 2020 and the average consumption recorded in 2014-2019. Only consumption on business days is taken into account, and it is adjusted for weather

Physical phenomenon occurring when the conductor is exposed to high voltage

Ratio between power generated and gross domestic consumption at a given time

Central West Europe, region including France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands within which electricity market prices have been coupled since 2010

Mechanism by which consumers cancel or postpone all or part of their power consumption in response to a signal

EDF-SEI is an integrated operator that generates, purchases, transmits, distributes and supplies electricity in non-interconnected island territories

A distribution system operator in France

European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, which has 34 member countries and 41 transmission system operator (TSO) members. Its purpose is to promote important aspects of electricity policy such as security, renewable energy development and the power market. ENTSO-E works closely with the European Commission and is the backbone of the European electricity market

Energy not supplied as a result of customer power cuts, expressed as a ratio to total annual power supplied by RTE to its customers

High impact, low probability atmospheric phenomena as well as cases of force majeure

“Bioenergy” includes biogas, paper/paperboard waste, municipal waste, wood-energy and other solid biofuels

“Fossil-fired thermal” includes fuels like coal, oil and gas

“Hydropower” includes all types of hydropower facilities (pondage facilities, run-of-river, etc.). Consumption resulting from pumping at “STEP” (pumped storage stations) is not deducted from total output

“Nuclear” includes all nuclear power plants. Consumption by auxiliary generator sets is deducted from generation

“Renewable” includes all electricity generated from renewable sources (hydro, wind, solar, bioenergy)

Power consumed across France, including Corsica and factoring in losses

Gestionnaire de Réseau de Transport d'électricité

Final customers getting electricity directly from the transmission system operator

The indicator used is based on Insee’s industrial output indices, weighted to reflect power demand in the different segments of each sector

Refers to electricity trades conducted on very short notice, almost in real time

Heating of the conductor when an electric current flows through it

Local Distribution Companies. These are, along with Enedis, the operators of the distribution system, intermediaries between the transmission grid and final customers. There are approximately 150 LDCs across France

Number of times lighting strikes per year and per km2 in a given region

Difference between consumption recorded in 2020 and the average consumption recorded in 2014-2019. Only consumption on business days is taken into account, and it is adjusted for weather

Marginal cost (€/MW) = Price_coal ÷ Averageefficiency + Price_allowance x Emission factor with: • Price_coal: in €/MWh with 1 tonne of coal = 6.97 MWh • Averageefficiency_{: average efficiency of a coal-fired plant =} 35% • Price_allowance: price of a CO₂ emissions allowance in €/tonne • Emission factor: average emission factor of coal-fired plant in France= 0.986 t/MWh (ADEME data)

Process by which electricity supply and demand are matched across different markets, within the limits of the interconnection capacity between these markets. An algorithm simultaneously determines prices and implicitly allocates available cross-border capacities, resulting in identical price zones when interconnection capacities do not limit cross-border trades

Real power actually available, which can be different from a plant’s theoretical power. For nuclear power plants, maximum available power is sensitive to external factors, such as: the temperature of the cooling source (river or sea water), reactors operating at the end of their fuel cycle (with less efficient fuel that needs to be replaced), or other technical or external constraints

Mise en Souterrain d'Initiative Locale (Undergrounding by local initiative)

Multiannual Energy Programmes (Programmation Pluriannuelle de l'Energie – PPE) are a new tool used to set priorities to guide the actions of public authorities as they relate to the energy transition, in accordance with the commitments outlined in the energy transition law for green growth

Megawatt peak corresponds to 1 million Watt-peak units. A Watt-peak is a measuring unit for the output of photovoltaic panels, corresponding to the production of 1 Watt of electricity under normal conditions for 1,000 Watts of solar radiation per square metre at an ambient temperature of 25°C

National Low-Carbon Strategy, or “National Strategy for Low-Carbon Development”, published in November 2015, is a roadmap for France. It is designed to promote an energy transition that produces a “decarbonised” society, i.e. one that no longer relies on fossil fuels, so that France can reduce or eliminate its contribution to climate change (contribution mainly resulting from greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels and the deterioration of carbon sinks). The ultimate goal is to allow France to meet its targets for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 and 2050

Block Exchange Notification (Notification d'Echanges de Blocs): Service allowing balance responsible parties to exchange energy blocks with other balance responsible parties and/or to supply electricity to consumption sites connected to the transmission or distribution grid outside their balancing perimeter.

Nominated Electricity Market Operators: Electricity exchange operators designated by regulators. They are tasked with organising coupling and ensuring that orders are matched on the day-ahead and intraday markets. The NEMOs designated for France by the CRE are EPEX SPOT and Nord Pool

Net Transfer Capacity, the transfer capacity made available to the market for imports and exports, calculated and published jointly by the system operators. Transfer capacity depends on the characteristics and availability of interconnection lines and internal constraints on individual countries’ power grids

Ratio between the number of short or long outages and the number of distributors and industrial customer sites supplied by RTE. An outage is considered short if it lasts between 1 sec and 3 min and long if it lasts more than 3 min

Actual length of one of the conductors that form a power line or the average length of the conductors if they differ substantially

Customers getting power from the public distribution network for professional use with contracted power of 36 kVA or less

Public Transmission System, over which electrical energy is carried and transformed, linking generation sites to consumption sites. It includes the primary transmission and interconnection grid (400 kV and 225 kV) as well as the regional distribution networks (225 kV, 90 kV and 63 kV). This very high voltage and high voltage grid provides electricity to heavy industry and the main distribution system operators

Averages of past temperature series considered to be representative of the current decade. Based on Météo France data, the temperatures are calculated by RTE for France as a whole thanks to 32 weather stations throughout the country

Residual demand corresponds to demand from which must-run generation has been subtracted

Chronological series from which the seasonal component has been removed. Changes in statistical series can usually be characterised as reflections of trends, seasonal components, or irregular components. Adjusting for seasonal variations is a technique used by statisticians to eliminate the effects of seasonal fluctuations on data, thereby revealing fundamental trends

“Syndicat des Énergies Renouvelables”, France’s renewable energy association

Final customers to which distribution system operators provide medium- and low-voltage power, with contracted power of 36 kVA or more

Average electricity price negotiated for delivery the following day in 24 one-hour timeslots

Steam reforming is a method of producing syngas. At a temperature of between 700 and 1,100°C, steam reacts with methane, producing carbon monoxide and hydrogen. This mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide is commonly referred to as synthetic gas, or syngas.

The French acronym for “Station de Transfert d’énergie par pompage”, or pumped storage station

The French acronym for “Station de Transfert d’énergie par pompage”, or pumped storage station

Temperature sensitivity refers to a sensitivity to fluctuations in temperature. In France, a decrease in temperature results in an increase in electricity consumption

Virtual Power Plants, mécanisme disparu au premier semestre 2015.

The water reserve in France is the weekly average aggregate filling rate of all water reservoir and hydro storage plants. The upper energy is energy that can be generated from the (only) production unit directly connected to the reservoir, depending on its filling rate. The data published constitutes only the reserves related to upper energy and is expressed in MWh