Marianne Laigneau on achieving a sustainable energy transition in Asia and EDF’s long-term plans for the region.

1. How is EDF contributing to the sustainable energy transition in Asia?

EDF Group has been present in Asia for more than 30 years. Wherever we operate in Asia, we are deeply committed to rising to the challenge of a low carbon energy transition: from electricity power production to smart energy services.

In China, EDF’s core business has been the development of nuclear power plants as well as renewables, grids and energy services for urban areas. Unit 2 of the Taishan EPR nuclear power plant is entered into commercial operation on Saturday, 7 September 2019, just nine months after Unit 1 was commissioned. Comprising two 1750-MW EPR reactors, the Taishan nuclear power plant is the biggest cooperation project to have taken place between China and France in the energy sector. Taishan’s two reactors are capable of supplying the Chinese power grid with up to 24 TWh of CO2-free electricity a year, amounting to the annual electricity consumption of five million Chinese users, while at the same time preventing the emission of 21 million tons of CO2 a year.

Southeast Asia is a fast-growing, fast-changing and dynamic market. It has been a long-term investment area for EDF. Today, we are focusing our development on three main areas: 1. Continuing our efforts to support low-carbon electricity demand, 2. Improving the power grid for remote areas, and 3. Developing smart city solutions.

Together with partners from Laos and Thailand, we are currently operating a very significant hydropower plant in Laos, Nam Theun 2 (1,070 MW), with an ambitious environmental and social plan for local communities. On 11 July, Nam Theun 2 Power Company Limited (NTPC, 40 per cent EDF) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Lao People's Democratic Republic, initiating their collaboration in the development of a floating photovoltaic solar power plant on the Nam Hydraulic Reservoir Theun 2, in the province of Khammouane. With a combined hydro-solar production unparalleled so far, such a project would strengthen the capacity of Nam Theun 2, adding to its hydraulic infrastructure of 1070MW a solar photovoltaic floating plant of 240MWc.

One year ago, EDF, Enedis (EDF’s subsidiary in charge of the electricity distribution network) and Nanyang Technological University of Singapore (NTU) launched the micro-grid project, “Micro grid for Affordable and Sustainable Electricity in Remote Areas” (MASERA). Today, this demonstrator allows EDF to commercially offer affordable and high performance microgrids for isolated territories. Some remote areas or isolated territories often have no or poor access to electricity, mostlyrelying on diesel generators which consumes expensive fuel and pollutes. We propose microgrid solutions to hybridise diesel generators with renewable energies and storage systems, in order to mitigate local pollution, increase supply reliability, and, above all, reduce the price of electricity for end users. Such solutions help local territories develop sustainable economic activities, such as fishing industry relying on cold storage, communication means through telecom towers, but also safety with light at night, or health with modern clinic development. We are currently developing three micro grid projects to help address the need for continuous, reliable, low-carbon and affordable electricity in three types of environments: one project in Myanmar for remote villages, one project in Indonesia for islands with no access to the national grid, and one project in India for industrial parks.

In India, our focus is on the growing demand for low-carbon energy and smart city solutions, an important government development plan of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A key aspect of that programme in India is improving the performance of the power grid and electricity distribution, through innovative electricity supply system solutions, integration of renewable energies into the grid as well as an ambitious smart metering programme. EDF International Networks has been selected by the Indian state-owned company EESL (Energy Efficiency Service Limited) for the design, installation and integration of a network of five million smart meters in India, mainly in the states Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. This project is an excellent example of leveraging French know-how in the field of energy and smart grid management in India, a country that represents one-fifth of the world’s population, to face the challenges of the energy transition. Through joining the forces of EDF engineering and subsidiaries like EDF Renewables in wind and solar or Citelum in street lighting, we are able to offer integrated solutions to Indian smart city challenges.

EDF has become a major player in Indian renewable electricity: around 300 MW of solar plants are in operation and 716 MW are under development; 164 MW of wind farms in operation in Gujarat and 400 MW under construction. In the field of nuclear energy, EDF has signed a non-binding industrial cooperation agreement for the construction of six EPR reactors at the Jaitapur site.

Through a range of diverse solutions involving the use of hydro-power, nuclear, high-efficiency gas plants, biomass, wind and solar power, storage, EDF Group provides the most appropriate and low-carbon solutions answering the energy transition expectations.

2. How do you foresee the growth in energy demand due to electrification impacting the utility sector?

Electricity consumption is rising fast in emerging markets, especially in Asia. The rapid population growth in Asia population led to an increasing demand for the generation and distribution of safe, affordable and low-carbon electricity. According to the IEA, the annual growth rate of electricity consumption in Southeast Asia could reach 4.7 per cent per year by 2040.

The future of energy is electric. This is not only the EDF Group’s position. According to IEA, electricity will represent 40 per cent of the rise in final energy consumption in 2040 – the same share of growth that oil took for the last 25 years. Renewable and nuclear electricity is the solution to shift away from direct fossil energy use.

While the development of carbon-free electricity is the solution to the energy transition, it raises many questions. The most fundamental is: which energy mix to adopt? While the energy mix is a matter of energy policies set by every country, most would agree that we need a diverse and balanced energy mix, rather than relying too heavily on a small number of energy sources. The fight against climate change requires integrating more low-carbon energy sources into the global energy mix.

Most European governments have already committed to increasing the proportion of energy derived from renewable sources, for example to 30 per cent by 2030 in France, which is a positive step towards diversifying our energy mix. But the challenges of the intermittency and cost of harnessing renewable energy sources (such as wind and solar energy) make it necessary for other sources to supplement them. Nuclear power plants are ideally placed to fulfil this role, as they can generate low-carbon electricity reliably and affordably for many decades. According to IEA, without additional nuclear, the clean energy transition becomes more difficult and more expensive – requiring US$1.6 trillion of additional investment in advanced economies over the next two decades.

Alongside renewable energy and nuclear, storage has a critical role to play in the energy transition. A pioneer in this area, the EDF Group is already involved in the main storage technology applications, including batteries, pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), hydrogen and concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) technologies. EDF’s goal is to develop 10GW of additional storage around the world by 2035, on top of the 5GW already operated by the Group. This acceleration represents an investment of €8 billion during the 2018 to 2035 period.

Batteries : At our microgrid demonstration in Singapore, we are currently testing a new type of battery based on a combination of zinc and air, developed by our newly created start-up, Zinium. This is our first prototype in Asia and we clearly see this technology as one of many that has the potential to replace current lithium-ion batteries, being cleaner, cheaper and less reliant on scarce resources.

Pumping storage: In France, EDF has built six pumped hydro-electric energy storage plants including Grand’Maison, a mixed pumping hydro energy storage (PHES) plant with eight pump-turbines and Pelton wheels providing a total of 1,790 MW of pump power and 1,160 MW of turbine power. In UAE, EDF has been awarded a consultancy contract for the pumped-storage hydroelectric station at Hatta (250 MW).

Concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP): in Morocco, alongside Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company) EDF was awarded the design, construction, operation and maintenance of Noor Midelt Phase 1 multi-technologies solar power plant. With a capacity of 800 MW, this innovative hybrid solar project gathers concentrated solar power (CSP) and photovoltaic technologies. The hybridisation of these technologies is a world first. The combined operation of photovoltaic and CSP technologies increases the plant’s output to produce a flexible, dispatchable and competitive electricity for the Moroccan grid until five hours after sunset.

Hydrogen: EDF has created a new subsidiary, “Hynamics”, responsible for offering effective low-carbon hydrogen for industry and mobility. Hynamics has opted for water electrolysis to produce its hydrogen, a technology that does not emit very much CO2 at all, as long as the electricity used itself comes from lowcarbon production methods.

The power system is becoming more diversified and complex, with even more participants and players. The ongoing energy transition is also characterised by a massive development of distributed energy resources (DER) from Renewables such as wind and solar, as well as the rise of new uses such as self-consumption, or electric mobility. Such transformation requires massive investments to develop more flexible power grids and IT infrastructure in order to manage the associated data in an increasingly complex energy system.

In order to cope with this challenge, EDF Group subsidiaries involved in Power grid activities are already engaged in the massive deployment of smart grid solutions and smart metering systems. Enedis, one of the major distribution system operators (DSOs) in Western Europe with more than 36 million customers, has launched since 2016 a massive roll out of smart grid solutions, including its LinkyTM smart metering program, with 21 million units of smart meters already installed on low-voltage (LV) networks out of a total target of about 35 million by 2021. With Advanced Metering Management (AMM) system, we develop our ability to plan, control, monitor, balance physical power flows, in a smart manner, and at all power system scales – from microgrids up to large national power systems. It alsoallows us to make power data available to all stakeholders.

3. How is EDF leveraging innovation and digitalisation to transform its business?

The energy transition and digital revolution are boosting energy efficiency and creating new business opportunities. In France and in other parts of the world, EDF Group innovates through digital energy efficiency solutions to optimise the overall system costs and to enable customers to better use energy: demand-side response, new personalised energy services and e-mobility.

Thanks to smart meters, EDF is further encouraging consumers to use less energy during peak hours or to move the time of energy use to off-peak times, thus reducing the need for investments in networks and/or power plants to meet peak demands. EDF has launched a new subsidiary called Agregio to help electricity producers by offering made to measure solutions to optimize and sell their output in the market. According to IEA, demand-side management could provide 185 GW of system flexibility worldwide, roughly equivalent to the currently installed electricity supply capacity of Australia and Italy combined, and could save US$270 billion of investment in new electricity infrastructure.

Our portfolio of digital solutions covers also the needs of commercial and industrial companies. Dalkia, our subsidiary, which specialises in energy services, designs, manages and operates facilities for its customers to help them do more with less. Its remote management centre, the DESC (Dalkia Energy Savings Centre), gathers data from these facilities in real time and combines artificial intelligence to ensure optimal energy management. Dalkia helped its customers unlock energy savings totalling 6.5 TWh in 2017.

From France to Singapore, the digital technologies developed by EDF are also helping cities to consume less energy. Elected representatives and local decision-makers have access to 3D urban modeling tools to simulate different urban scenarios, optimise energy consumption and support the development of smart cities. Thanks to Citelum, an EDF Group subsidiary, cities also can manage, in real-time, equipment such as public lighting that can account for up to 40 per cent of their power bill. Citelum manages more than three million lighting points in the world. The city of Patna (capital of the state of Bihar, India) has just entrusted EDF with the lighting of riverside roads (including 6 km of expressway) and historic buildings.

E-mobility is a new challenge for electric utilities which EDF is fully committed to meet. On 10 October, the EDF Group launched its Plan Mobilité Electrique (Electric Mobility Plan) in order to become the sector’s leading energy company on its four biggest European markets (France, UK, Italy and Belgium) while engaging in electric mobility in other parts of the world. EDF has set up three objectives to be achieved by 2022: to become the leading power supplier for electric vehicles; the biggest charging network operator; and Europe’s “smart charging” leader.

For sure, the energy transition and the digital revolution are creating new business opportunities!

4. Could you share about the latest ongoing research by EDF’s Asian Sustainable Cities Centre of Excellence, the “EDF Lab” and its applications to energy in Asia?

With a total research and development(R&D) budget of €611 million, EDF is aiming at speeding up innovation for the cities of tomorrow, with innovations in energy efficiency in buildings, energy planning, smart grids, renewable energy & storage, electric mobility and micro-grids.

In Singapore, EDF R&D launched its EDF Lab in 2014, working with the Singaporean government through the Housing Development Board (HDB) and local universities, to develop strong localised expertise for Singaporean and Southeast Asian context in the field of smart cities and smart grids.

EDF Lab is developing with the Housing Development Board (HDB) a web-based simulation platform to support decisions of urban planners in the master planning process and their impact on investments, climate change, and quality of life. This tool looks into energy efficiency, renewable energies, e-mobility, environmental and social aspects of the built environment.

As mentioned earlier, EDF Lab in partnership with NTU and Enedis, is operating a microgrid demonstration project of renewable energies microgrid on Semakau Island, south of Singapore. The project is called MASERA Microgrid for Affordable and Sustainable Electricity in Remote Areas – and supports EDF efforts in reducing the cost of clean and reliable energy for millions of potential customers in need in Southeast Asia.

Eventually, EDF Lab is exploring new business models related to e-mobility charging infrastructure, and simulating the impact of future autonomous vehicles on the value chain. In that regard, Singapore is the perfect place as it is positioned at the forefront of autonomous vehicle experimentation and regulation.

5. The theme for SIEW 2019 is Accelerating Energy Transformation. What do you look forward to being discussed at SIEW this year?

Singapore is one of the greatest business and cultural hubs in the word. A place where I am always glad to come back and where EDF Asia is headquartered. Singapore International Energy Week is a wonderful opportunity to exchange views with some of the greatest experts in the world.

The energy industry is experiencing unprecedented changes and challenges. Global warming is a global environmental emergency. Accelerating the decarbonisation of energy has become the most urgent challenge we must take up collectively! It is also a major challenge that requires total commitment and strong strategic leadership from the political and business community.

I’m glad to discuss our common challenges and find, together, solutions to speed up the energy transition while meeting our major stakes.

About Marianne Laigneau, Group Senior Vice President, in charge of the International Division of EDF

Marianne Laigneau was appointed Senior Executive Vice President Group in charge of the International Division, member of the Executive Committee, in July 2017. She was previously the Group Senior Executive Vice President Group in charge of Human Resources from December 2010 to July 2017 and Managing Director to the Human Resources from January 2010 to November 2010. She was also Corporate Secretary and Senior Executive Vice President from June 2007 to December 2009, having been General Counsel from joining the EDF Group in January 2005. Before coming to EDF, she was Head of Institutional Affairs at Gaz de France, where she was subsequently appointed Deputy Head, Information and Public Affairs, in September 2004. Between 1995 and 1997, she held various positions within the French Administration (Legal Adviser for the Ministry for cooperation, member of electoral missions in Mozambique for the UN and in Gaza for the EU). Between 1997 and 2000, she was posted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and appointed First Counsellor at the French Embassy in Tunis, where she oversaw communications, negotiations and political, community and legal affairs. A graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Sèvres, the Ecole Nationale d’Administration and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, she also holds an aggregation in Classics and a Masters Degree in French Literature. After graduating from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, Marianne Laigneau joined the Council of State where she became Counsellor in 1995. She was awarded Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite in 2006 and Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur in 2010.