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RTE intends to increase its contribution to the voltage control of consumer sites.

The voltage system ancillary services terms and conditions allow the technical and financial conditions for contribution to dynamic and continuous voltage control to be contracted with public transmission system users. Generators are obliged to sign these rules (under the terms of the French Energy Code). Consumers, however, can sign the rules on a voluntary basis if they have the technical capacity and if their contribution allows them to respond to a local constraint identified by RTE.

To date, no consumer site connected via HV-B contributes to the dynamic and continuous regulation of the voltage. RTE intends to develop this lever in the coming years.

RTE controls the voltage on the electricity transmission system to ensure the reliable operation of the power grid.

Controlling voltage thus makes it possible to avoid uncontrollable changes in the grid such as voltage drops, and to respect the conditions of use of equipment and contractual voltage ranges, while minimising losses.

RTE’s needs fall within a context where grid constraints are increasingly prevalent:

  • High voltage in the short and medium term, particularly due to the undergrounding of electrical power, and the change in loads (consumption) with increasingly capacitive electrical characteristics (i.e. injecting reactive energy);
  • Low voltage in the longer term, with the massive rise in customers with high consumption.

In this context, one of the innovations RTE wishes to develop in the coming years is to increase the voltage control points in areas of the transmission system under stress, with the help of consumer customer technologies allowing dynamic and continuous voltage control. This service, for which the current technical and financial terms are described in the Frequency Ancillary Services Terms and Conditions, requires a contract with RTE, and is remunerated.

RTE is therefore prepared to study the practical conditions that would allow this type of voltage control experiment with a voluntary consumer customer, equipped with the right technologies, and located in an area under constraint.

For additional information, please contact nathalie.blanc@rte-france.com.

 

08 avril 2024