To manage a cleaner and more efficient energy mix and seize the pressing issue of global warming, Enedis is investing in research and innovation in order to come up with concrete solutions to seize the pressing issue of global warming. InterFlex, a 3-years project ending in December 2019, is an opportunity for its 20 partners to imagine tomorrow’s electricity grid: innovative, highly respectful of environmental needs and deeply in touch with the customers.

InterFlex aims, above all, to foster the development of renewable energies and their integration into electric networks. Sustainable solutions need to be found for tomorrow’s energy uses. The principal challenge is to master both consumption peaks arising from e-mobility and generation peaks from renewable energies. Today, the vast majority of wind and photovoltaic installations is connected to the distribution grids. Enedis and its partners are on the right track when exploring flexible solutions on the local scale.

One of the key challenges for InterFlex has been to focus on the consumer and to find appropriate solutions to integrate new electricity uses. Through the development of local flexibility, the InterFlex project perceives the consumer not only as an end-customer, but as a valued partner. The 6 InterFlex demonstrators have taken different technological approaches to flexibility but have one essential element in common – the conviction that digitalization will give access and enhance the value of a local approach to energy distribution, which makes customers not only more accountable but also mobilizes them to act as true collaborators in the energy transition.

By Yves Barlier, Smart Grid Program Director at Enedis