Markets

Energy project modelling in the French electricity market

France’s electricity market is a single price zone dominated by nuclear power, with one transmission operator, one main distribution network and a newly centralised capacity mechanism. Gridcog models how batteries, solar and hybrid projects earn across French wholesale, balancing, capacity and support schemes, under TURPE grid tariffs, before you invest.

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  • Day-ahead prices were negative in 513 hours in 2025, up from 352 in 2024, while France exported a record 92.3 TWh net.

    RTE, February 2026

  • About 1.5 GW of batteries were connected at the start of 2026, up from under 50 MW five years earlier.

    ESS News, June 2026

  • France’s reformed capacity mechanism contracted 82.4 GW for winter 2026–27 at a clearing price of about €28,183/MW.

    CRE and RTE, via Lenergeek, November 2026

  • Only 22 of the 1,470 solar projects selected in France’s PPE2 tenders were hybrid solar and storage projects.

    CRE, March 2026

How the market is set up

How is the French electricity market set up?

As one price zone, run by far fewer network operators than most of Europe. RTE (Réseau de Transport d’Électricité) runs the transmission grid and balances the system, Enedis runs about 95% of the distribution network in mainland France, and local distribution companies cover the rest. The Commission de régulation de l’énergie (CRE) regulates both.

Nuclear sets the shape of the market. In 2025, nuclear plants produced 373.0 TWh of France’s 547.5 TWh, and 95.2% of production was low-carbon. That leaves France a large net exporter, and its midday solar surplus pushes prices below zero more often.

RoleWhoWhat it means for projects
01Bidding zone
France (FR)One day-ahead price for the whole country
02Transmission system operator (TSO)
RTERuns the grid at 400 kV, 225 kV and regional voltages, buys balancing and capacity, and connects large projects
03Distribution system operators (DSOs)
Enedis, about 95% of the mainland network, plus local distribution companies (entreprises locales de distribution)Medium- and low-voltage connections and TURPE billing for most sites
04Regulator
Commission de régulation de l’énergie (CRE)Sets TURPE network tariffs, approves market rules and runs renewable tenders
05Power exchanges
EPEX SPOT and Nord Pool (spot), EEX (futures)Day-ahead and intraday trading is coupled with the rest of Europe

How does France compare with Germany?

The two biggest markets in continental Europe sit side by side in the same coupled day-ahead auction, but are run very differently.

FranceGermany
Price zonesOneOne, shared with Luxembourg
Network operatorsOne TSO (RTE); Enedis runs about 95% of distributionFour TSOs and more than 800 DSOs
Negative day-ahead hours, 2025513573
Average day-ahead price, 2025€61/MWh€89.32/MWh
Capacity remunerationCentralised capacity mechanism, with RTE as single buyer from November 2026First StromVKG auction held in September 2026
Flexible grid accessOptimised connection offers (offres de raccordement optimisées, ORO)Flexible Connection Agreements (FCAs)
Solar supportComplément de rémunération (two-way top-up)EEG market premium
Germany’s electricity marketUK electricity market (GB)2024 pricing dynamics across European markets

Thinking Energy

France against its neighbours

A short explainer from the Gridcog team comparing behind-the-meter solar and storage in France and eight other European markets.

 

Where’s the best place in Europe for behind-the-meter solar and storage?

September 2025 · 3:31

Wholesale trading

How does wholesale trading work in France?

Through the same coupled European auctions as its neighbours. French power trades in the day-ahead auction, which moved to 15-minute products on 1 October 2025, then in intraday auctions and continuous intraday trading. Deviations are settled at RTE’s imbalance price.

Volatility is rising. In 2025, day-ahead prices were negative in 513 hours and averaged €61/MWh. Solar and wind output reduced during negative-price episodes roughly doubled, to about 3 TWh. For batteries, Gridcog’s Industry team sees wholesale arbitrage taking a growing share of the revenue stack.

What replaced ARENH?

The versement nucléaire universel (VNU). ARENH, which let alternative suppliers buy about 100 TWh a year of EDF’s historic nuclear output at a fixed price, ended on 31 December 2025. Since 1 January 2026, EDF sells its nuclear output on the market, and the VNU returns part of its revenue above a threshold set by decree to consumers.

An intro to wholesale energy marketsSolar surges, negative prices and the evolving duck curve in EuropeNegative pricing and price volatility

Balancing services

What balancing services can batteries provide in France?

Frequency containment reserve (FCR) and automatic frequency restoration reserve (aFRR), with slower reserves activated through RTE’s balancing mechanism (mécanisme d’ajustement). FCR was long the biggest battery revenue stream in France, but the Industry team expects aFRR to become a large part of the battery value stack.

Demand-side flexibility has its own route to market. Since 1 September 2025, NEBCO (notification d’échanges de blocs de consommation) has replaced NEBEF, letting sites sell shifts in consumption, including increases, into the energy markets.

Ancillary services in mainland EuropeGrid frequency collapse and blackouts explainedDemand response and flexible loads
ServiceFrench nameHow it’s boughtPaid forStatus for batteries
01FCR
Réserve primaireJoint tender with neighbouring TSOs through the FCR Cooperation, in four-hour blocksCapacity onlyBattery supply is close to French demand, leaving little room to grow
02aFRR
Réserve secondaireCapacity auctions, reopened in June 2024; energy activated through PICASSO since April 2025Capacity and activated energyAttractive for now; the Industry team expects prices to fall as more batteries connect
03Slower reserves (mFRR and replacement reserve)
Réserve tertiaireThrough RTE’s balancing mechanismActivated energyOpen to batteries and demand response

Capacity mechanism

How does France’s capacity mechanism work?

Since 1 November 2026, RTE buys capacity centrally. Under the old mechanism, suppliers had to hold capacity certificates that producers sold on an open market, and prices were volatile. The reformed mechanism, approved by the European Commission for ten years, makes RTE the single buyer: it sets the need, runs the auctions and contracts directly with generation, storage and demand response.

Capacity markets vs energy-only marketsCapacity markets for battery storage: a 2026 guide to Europe’s key schemes
Old mechanism (to winter 2025–26)New mechanism (from 1 November 2026)
BuyerSuppliers, through tradable certificatesRTE, as single buyer
AuctionsSix certificate auction sessions a yearTwo auctions a year: four years ahead (PL-4) and one year ahead (PL-1)
First resultn/a82.4 GW contracted for 1 November 2026 to 31 March 2027, at about €28,183/MW
Storage and demand responseCertified alongside other capacity4.7 GW reserved volume for low-carbon flexibility (demand response, batteries and pumped hydro)
Availability windows on stress days07:00–15:00 and 18:00–20:0007:00–10:00 and 17:00–20:00

Solar and storage

How is solar supported in France, and where does storage fit?

Large solar plants win 20-year support contracts in CRE tenders. Under the complément de rémunération, the plant sells its output on the market and, each month, receives or pays back the difference between its tender price and a reference market price based on the French solar fleet. No top-up is paid in negative-price periods.

That leaves solar exposed to cannibalisation. The CRE estimates that negative prices led to 1.6 TWh of supported solar output being forgone in 2025, about 20% of what those plants were expected to produce, and that the solar output that wasn’t curtailed captured about 32% less than baseload. Storage can shift that output to higher-priced hours, but hybrids are rare.

In March 2026, the CRE proposed changes to future solar tenders to encourage hybrids, such as paying the negative-price premium only when the whole hybrid plant stops exporting.

When a battery shares a connection with a supported solar plant, Enedis’s S9 metering scheme (schéma S9) separates the two. Solar output is metered before the battery and earns the support, whether it is exported or stored, while the battery trades on its own merchant account.

Co-located battery storageHow to model offtake contracts and subsidies for co-located renewable projectsSolar PV modelling

  • 22 of 1,470

    PPE2 solar projects selected that are hybrid with storage

  • 1.6 TWh

    Supported solar output forgone to negative prices, 2025, about 20% of expected output

  • About32%

    Capture discount of non-curtailed solar against baseload, 2025

Grid connections and fees

What are the biggest barriers for battery projects in France?

Connecting in the right place, on terms that let the battery trade. By 1 September 2025, RTE had approved 12.6 GW of battery connection requests on the transmission network, against 0.3 GW in operation, and RaboResearch describes most grid nodes as having low or very low capacity to connect new batteries. RTE’s answer is optimised connection offers (offres de raccordement optimisées, ORO): faster, cheaper connections in exchange for limits on import or export.

Network demand charges: how tariff complexity affects the flexibility business caseBattery energy storage system (BESS) modelling
RuleWhat it means for batteriesStatus, November 2026
01Optimised connection offers (ORO)
Faster, cheaper transmission connections with limits on injection or withdrawalOffered by RTE since 2024; about 25% of RTE’s storage queue, roughly 2.8 GW, was under these offers in the CRE’s January 2026 report
02Template offers (ORO à gabarit)
Limits fixed in advance: the ‘solar’ template bars export from 10:00 to 18:00, March to October; the ‘urban’ template bars import from 07:00 to 13:00 and 17:00 to 21:00, November to MarchAllocation procedure approved by the CRE on 4 February 2026
03TURPE 7 network tariffs
The CRE’s regulated tariffs for using the grid, billed by RTE at high voltage and by Enedis at medium and low voltageIn force since 1 August 2025
04Injection–withdrawal option for storage
Lower grid fees for batteries that charge at midday in solar-constrained zones, or discharge at winter peaks in demand-constrained onesOptional from August 2026 for storage at HTA, HTB 1 and HTB 2, in around 3,000 designated zones
05PPE3 energy plan
2035 targets of 55–80 GW of solar, 35–40 GW of onshore wind and 15 GW of offshore windPublished by decree on 13 February 2026

How Gridcog models France

How does Gridcog model the French electricity market?

By combining the market, contract and tariff rules that apply to each French project. Gridcog simulates how a battery or hybrid site trades and gets paid in France, then runs the cashflows, IRR and NPV for each scenario and stakeholder.

The French day-ahead, intraday auction and continuous intraday markets, with battery arbitrage co-optimised across them.

FCR in four-hour blocks and aFRR in one-hour blocks, alongside wholesale trading and capacity mechanism revenue.

The solar support contract modelled as an offtake contract settled on solar output, against a monthly reference price, with no payment in negative-price intervals.

Solar on its own submeter so support is paid on solar production, with the battery trading on a merchant account, and separate owners split through inter-asset flows.

Subscribed power and time-of-use energy charges on grid imports, and the injection component on exports, built from the CRE’s tariff grids.

Customers

Who uses Gridcog for projects in France?

Developers and battery companies working across Europe, France included.

All case studies

  • Prosolia Energy

    Developer and EPC across Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany and Mexico

    Has used Gridcog to model hybrid systems for large industrial clients in Spain and France, where batteries are paired with existing solar plants or used to provide flexible demand.

    Read the Prosolia case study

  • Connected Energy

    Second-life EV battery storage

    Plans to use Gridcog to model the market dynamics of the UK, France and Germany, towards a target of 300+ MWh of battery storage across the three by 2028.

    Read the Connected Energy case study

Experts

Who are Gridcog’s French market experts?

  • Laura Hoffmann-Ostenhof

    Central Europe Industry Lead

    Before Gridcog, she worked in strategy consulting at Apricum, a cleantech advisory, and in energy consulting in Germany and the UK.

  • Sebastien Behaghel

    Energy Analyst

    Has contributed to the Industry team’s research on French market rules.

  • Catalina Villaro

    Senior Energy Analyst

    Her recent work looks at how France built a market for collective self-consumption. Ask her about collective self-consumption in France.

  • Genna Boyle

    CCO and Head of EMEA

    Began her career in energy trading at Contact Energy in New Zealand, then helped set up the trading team at Limejump and went on to lead its commercial team.

Who models French projects in Gridcog?

Developers and IPPs, investors and funds, energy majors and large energy users.

Modelling software for renewable developers and IPPsInvestment modelling for funds and investorsEnergy modelling for energy majorsEnergy modelling for large energy users

Frequently asked questions

RTE runs the transmission grid, balances the system and, since November 2026, buys capacity as the single buyer. Enedis operates about 95% of the distribution network in mainland France, with local distribution companies covering the rest. The CRE regulates network tariffs and market rules, and power trades on EPEX SPOT, Nord Pool and EEX in a single French bidding zone.

The versement nucléaire universel (VNU). ARENH, which gave alternative suppliers access to about 100 TWh a year of EDF’s nuclear output at a fixed price, ended on 31 December 2025. From 1 January 2026, EDF sells its nuclear output on the market, and when prices are above a threshold set by decree, part of the extra revenue goes back to consumers.

Since 1 November 2026, RTE is the single buyer. It sets the national need, runs auctions four years and one year ahead, and contracts directly with generation, storage and demand response, which must be available on stress days. The first auction, held on 6 July 2026, contracted 82.4 GW for winter 2026–27 at about €28,183/MW, including a 4.7 GW volume reserved for low-carbon flexibility.

Yes. Batteries provide FCR, bought jointly with neighbouring TSOs in four-hour blocks and paid for capacity only, and aFRR, bought in capacity auctions that RTE reopened in June 2024, with energy activated through PICASSO since April 2025. FCR is close to saturation, so aFRR, wholesale arbitrage and the capacity mechanism carry more of the revenue stack.

The seventh generation of France’s regulated network tariffs (tarif d’utilisation des réseaux publics d’électricité), set by the CRE and in force since 1 August 2025. RTE bills it at high voltage and Enedis at medium and low voltage. From August 2026, storage at HTA and HTB can opt into an injection–withdrawal component that lowers fees for charging or discharging when the local grid needs it.

An offre de raccordement optimisée: an optimised grid connection offer that RTE has made to storage projects since 2024. The battery connects faster and more cheaply, in exchange for limits on export or import. Template offers (ORO à gabarit) fix those limits in advance, for example no export from 10:00 to 18:00 between March and October.

Because solar output is losing value. French day-ahead prices were negative in 513 hours in 2025, supported plants get no top-up in those hours, and the CRE estimates that 1.6 TWh of supported solar output was forgone as a result. A battery can store that output and sell it later, yet only 22 of 1,470 PPE2 solar tender winners were hybrid.

Yes. Gridcog models French wholesale trading, FCR, aFRR and capacity revenue, the complément de rémunération on solar output, co-located batteries metered under the S9 scheme, and TURPE network tariffs, then runs cashflows, IRR and NPV for each stakeholder. Prosolia Energy has used it to model hybrid systems for large industrial clients in France.

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Model your French project in Gridcog

Request a demo and we’ll show you how Gridcog models your battery or hybrid project in France, from the complément de rémunération and S9 metering to TURPE, aFRR and the capacity mechanism.

The team behind Gridcog

Fabian Le Gay Brereton, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Gridcog

Fabian Le Gay Brereton

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder

Previously co-founded Greensense, acquired by ERM Power (now Shell Energy).

Pete Tickler, Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of Gridcog

Pete Tickler

Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder

Co-founded Greensense and led digital innovation at ERM Power (now Shell Energy).

Genna Boyle, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of EMEA at Gridcog

Genna Boyle

Chief Commercial Officer & Head of EMEA

More than 10 years in energy strategy, trading and renewables, with senior roles at Battery Optimiser and Limejump.

Which other markets does Gridcog model?

Gridcog supports 40+ markets, including Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, Spain, the Nordics, Australia’s NEM and WEM, New Zealand and, in Europe, Poland, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium.

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