Electric demand response in the industry to tackle the energy crisis

Increasingly developed on the national territory, industrial electrical load shedding aims to ensure the electricity supply at all times and for everyone. Industrial companies, which are generally heavy electricity consumers, sign contracts with a load shedding operator to make their load shedding capacity available to the electrical grid and reduce their consumption in case of need in exchange for revenue.

In other words, it is a contract between a company and an electricity transmission network (also called TSO). The company commits, at the request of the TSO, to temporarily cut a part of its energy consumption. In exchange for this commitment, the TSO will pay a fee to the signing company.

The load shedding contract with a company is different from distributed load shedding, which involves cutting off electricity for a large number of “small consumers”, such as individual households.

TSOs are able to provide energy according to their forecasts. Indeed, a part of the energy produced and not consumed is lost, as energy is difficult to store. However, energy consumption in France is not a constant that can be reliably predicted. There are consumption peaks depending on the time, especially at 7pm, when people return home and prepare meals. There is also a higher demand in winter, with the heating systems being turned on.

In order to be able to continuously provide energy during these peaks, it is necessary to be able to reduce consumption in other areas.

Industrials can subscribe to a curtailment contract with the electricity distribution network operator. Through this contract, they receive a signal asking them to “curtail”.

The network operator subscribes to “insurance” with the industrial customer. They will pay a certain amount so that, if the industrial customer finds themselves in a situation where they need to curtail their consumption, they can ask the industrial customer to reduce part of their consumption. The main advantage of this system is to secure the electricity network.

The network operator is not certain that they will need to ask the industrial customer to curtail, but if needed, the implementation of this insurance ensures that they can instantly respond to electricity supply needs.

The industry, and especially production chains, constantly use energy-intensive machines, due to their speed and size. It is therefore in industrial facilities that the most significant immediate energy savings can be achieved. This is where the most important and lucrative energy curtailment contracts for companies are found.

You determine the amount of energy that can be cut on demand when establishing the contract. However, it is not about completely cutting off your production. This is why it is important to identify which sector of the company, or the chain, the installations can be paused.

This saving can be achieved by using alternative energies, such as generators, or by pausing part of the chain, sometimes using a buffer stock to cushion the temporary drop in production.

To clarify the industrial electrical curtailment contract, let’s take an example:

• An factory with 4 production lines subscribes to a curtailment contract with a curtailment operator.
• It receives the order from this operator to make its curtailment capacity available to the electrical network.
• The curtailment contract specifies that the company must curtail x GW, which therefore requires the company to stop a production line. This system can be managed in two different ways:
  • Either the industrial facility has the ability to stop a production line and therefore, when asked to stop the line, it can do so immediately.
  • Or it is equipped with electricity production already in place on site with generators. When asked to curtail part of the consumption, it starts the generators to ensure the production of electricity to power the production line.
• The counterpart is that the factory will receive income in return for having carried out this curtailment.

There are two main reasons why the energy curtailment contract is currently being highlighted more.

The first one is that energy consumption is becoming increasingly difficult to predict, with heating systems gradually turning back on, the government encouraging energy savings, and ecological awareness leading to changes in French habits. Therefore, it is important for the TSOs to have increased flexibility to meet this evolving objective.

The second reason is the upcoming winter. Energy suppliers anticipate an increase in demand, as well as energy shortages. Indeed, with the context of the war in Russia, some energy circuits will no longer supply households in Europe. It will be necessary to find ways to reduce France’s energy consumption and continue to supply homes while limiting the use of the most polluting energies, such as coal.

The more you are able to limit your energy consumption, the more profitable your load shedding contract will be. However, it is not about overestimating your ability to save, or you risk impacting your production and no longer being able to meet delivery deadlines.

Dametis takes you further than just energy savings. Once your needs are assessed, we advise you on either reducing your energy consumption to qualify for an energy curtailment contract, or increasing your production without using more energy.

1. 1. We identify your equipment, your industrial process, and their electrical consumption.
   2. We detect opportunities for flexibility in the most energy-intensive equipment.
   3. We define the potential for curtailment of your site taking into account the production constraints of your site.
   4. We explore ways to optimize the curtailment potential of your site.

This is where Dametis comes in: we map out your energy installation, by deploying sensors and using our software MyDametis. We work together with you to quantify the energy consumption of each part of the production chain, and we assist you in determining:

– The installations that can be temporarily paused
– The amount of infrastructure that can continue running using alternative energy sources, such as your generator.

This information is crucial, as accurately measuring the amount of energy you can do without enables you to achieve the highest return with your RTE.

Once the curtailment contract is signed, you will need to prove that you have effectively limited your consumption at the required times. Dametis makes your electrical network smart (or transforms it into a smart grid), allowing you to easily record and communicate this information to ensure the transparency of your energy curtailment contract. This will prevent any dispute or challenge from the electricity transmission network.