As regulations are not conducive to the development of smart grids, the law needs to evolve to create the right conditions for their deployment.
Indeed, the CRE (Commission de régulation de l'énergie) in its article1sets out the regulatory points that are holding back this development, including the following:
The TURPE regulation already covers investments in transmission and distribution infrastructures, but does not include smart metering, which distributors are the only ones to bear financially. This needs to change, to enable a better distribution of costs, since suppliers also benefit from these advantages.
Ownership of the supports needs to be clarified, as do the conditions for transferring governance. The additional cost of intermittency is borne solely by distributors and transporters, without any part of it being borne by suppliers.
Distributors and suppliers are not allowed to set up and manage storage systems, which means they have to set up contracts with storage companies and other ancillary services. Tariff regulations are not adapted to reflect the real costs of experimentation, so a change is essential here too.
The solution would be much simpler regulation by implementing a circular economy and sharing policy to keep the smart grid running and bear the management costs.
As technology evolves, so does legislation. Good energy distribution includes the introduction of NICTs, which brings with it the risk of data hacking.
1. Source: Commission de régulation de l'énergie.
A.Fanouni