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France unveils new smart grid project; Tenesol to install 500 PV systems

Under a new €30 million government funded project designed to develop a French smart grid, Tenesol will install 500 photovoltaic systems and 250 converters.

Tenesol will install the photovoltaic systems by early next year. Image: Tenesol.

The four year Millener project aims to roll out 1,000 energy management systems on French overseas territories.

According to a statement released by Tenesol, the aim is to "allow homes to supply and manage their own electricity with the support of renewable energy. It also allows more demand-side power management for homes and supports the local electricity grid."

Raising awareness of renewable energies and improving grid stability are also goals of the pilot project.

Tenesol says the first systems under the project will be installed on homes on the islands of La Réunion and Corsica, "plus some other French island territories".

All of the photovoltaic systems will be rooftop installations and will be no bigger than three kilowatts peak in size. They are expected to be completed by early next year, "after which testing and analysis will determine their economic and technical interest".

All the installations will reportedly have a direct telecoms link to the local power grid operator, in order to feed back data on their performance.

France’s overseas territories are said to have been chosen for the Millener project due to the increased energy demands seen there, and power grid instability.

"The key benefit of Millener is that it allows residential PV systems to store unused energy in a battery. Then, when night falls, this stored energy can either be used by the household or sold into the local electricity grid – the household can decide," continued the statement.