Ener­gy se­cu­ri­ty is a key is­sue for ci­ties. In­deed, the ener­gy themes are thus one of the ma­jor preoc­cu­pa­tions of the town halls and the com­mu­ni­ties. Ma­ny have been or are thus confron­ted with ener­gy choices, of­ten cau­sed by ex­ter­nal events, such as the weight of pu­blic opi­nion, ma­ni­pu­la­ted or not, by the proxi­mi­ty of im­por­tant elec­to­ral dead­lines ( eg the conse­quences of Fu­ku­shi­ma­Daï­chi in­ci­dent in Ja­pan by some coun­tries, shale gas in France), with eco­no­mic and fi­nan­cial im­pacts ( eg re­ne­wable ener­gies), elec­to­ral ( eg aban­don­ment of nu­clear po­wer in Ger­ma­ny), etc. . Ge­ne­ral­ly spea­king, ener­gy choices and po­li­ti­cal choices are in­ti­ma­te­ly lin­ked.

At all po­li­ti­cal and ad­mi­nis­tra­tive le­vels, ci­ties are at the fo­re­front of ma­ny ter­ri­to­rial ar­ran­ge­ments. In ef­fect, ci­ties are in­vol­ved in the ener­gy tran­si­tion and be­come es­sen­tial ac­tors in the new ur­ban ener­gy land­scapes. Ci­ties are in­crea­sin­gly po­si­tio­ning them­selves as vec­tors for eco­no­mic growth far beyond the lo­cal le­vel im­pact.

In this context, the mem­ber states of the Eu­ro­pean Union ( EU) are di­vi­ded about ener­gy and cli­mate le­gis­la­tion( 1). There are ma­ny dis­cre­pan­cies bet­ween the na­tio­nal le­vel and the Eu­ro­pean le­vel. Ho­we­ver, the EU in­tends to make the Eu­ro­pean elec­tri­ci­ty re­tail mar­ket more sus­tai­nable and more car­bon­neu­tral. The li­be­ra­li­za­tion of the elec­tri­ci­ty mar­ket aims to create, since 2007, an Eu­ro­pean single mar­ket in or­der to op­ti­mize the sec­tor. Thus, the cus­to­mer is of­fe­red a se­cure of­fer in terms of sup­plies, and this, at com­pe­ti­tive prices. In­deed, elec­tri­ci­ty pro­vi­ders will then of­fer to their cus­to­mers elec­tri­ci­ty from who­le­sale li­quids markets ( the Eu­ro­pean elec­tri­ci­ty mar­ket makes it pos­sible to of­fer a lar­ger sup­ply and de­mand in vo­lume, which pro­motes prices more com­pe­ti­tive) or an elec­tri­ci­ty ex­change ( the tra­ding plat­form al­lows for the en­try of ano­ny­mous and ope­ra­tio­nal or­ders for the pur­chase and sale of elec­tri­ci­ty).

Since De­cem­ber 7, 2010, any elec­tri­ci­ty sup­plier has the pos­si­bi­li­ty of pur­cha­sing nu­clear elec­tri­ci­ty from the French com­pa­ny, EDF, at a re­gu­la­ted price, pro­vi­ded that this elec­tri­ci­ty is des­ti­ned for the elec­tri­ci­ty sup­ply of cus­to­mers lo­ca­ted in the French ter­ri­to­ry.

At the same time, some ex­perts be­lieve that nu­clear po­wer will be lin­ked to re­ne­wable ener­gies in the fu­ture, due to its unique cha­rac­te­ris­tics( 2). Ho­we­ver, nu­clear po­wer will be able to meet the time nee­ded to in­crease and de­crease po­wer. It is the­re­fore the ther­mal and hy­drau­lics that will ba­lance and en­sure du­ra­bi­li­ty( 3).

Ho­we­ver, re­ne­wable ener­gies, which are by na­ture in­ter­mit­tent and ran­dom, are in­suf­fi­cient and in­ade­quate to re­place nu­clear po­wer ( even if the pro­blem is not en­ti­re­ly sol­ved, but that of waste)( 4).

In 2014­2015, who­le­sale elec­tri­ci­ty markets in Eu­rope de­crea­sed. As a re­sult, there is a si­tua­tion of over­ca­pa­ci­ty due to slug­gish elec­tri­ci­ty de­mand due to the eco­no­mic cri­sis and an in­crea­sing pro­duc­tion ca­pa­ci­ty re­sul­ting from the ar­ri­val of re­ne­wable ener­gies on the grids. Si­mi­lar­ly, the de­ve­lop­ment of smart grids will have to pro­mote the in­te­gra­tion of elec­tri­ci­ty from re­ne­wable ener­gies in­to the com­mon mar­ket and to de­ve­lop cross­bor­der elec­tri­ci­ty ex­changes. In this context, Smart Ci­ties are de­ve­lo­ping ta­king in­to ac­count an op­ti­mi­za­tion and ener­gy ef­fi­cien­cy.

Po­wer grids, going in the co­ming years, be more and more connec­ted and in­ter­ac­tive. This evo­lu­tion will fa­vor a rap­pro­che­ment of the ter­ri­to­ries through a de­cen­tra­li­zed pro­duc­tion. In this context, the Control of ener­gy de­mand will in­crease by the in­vol­ve­ment of the pros­pec­tive. By way of illus­tra­tion, some elec­tri­ci­ty sup­pliers are po­si­tio­ning them­selves in the "ethi­cal elec­tri­ci­ty" seg­ment, of­fe­ring their cus­to­mers 100% re­ne­wable elec­tri­ci­ty ( 5), gea­red to­wards ci­ti­zen and lo­cal in­vol­ve­ment. This has been fa­vo­red by the de­re­gu­la­tion of elec­tri­ci­ty markets. The peer­to­peer markets will no doubt thus be led to evolve to­wards lo­cal de­con­ges­tion and adap­ted elec­tri­ci­ty net­works at the in­ter­re­gio­nal le­vel. The Di­gi­tal La­bor thus fa­vors a re­de­ploy­ment of in­tel­li­gent net­works to­wards a more de­cen­tra­li­zed pro­duc­tion. In this context, cus­to­mers gain di­rect ac­cess to the va­lue chain of the elec­tri­cal sys­tem ( 6).

The mar­ket of bat­te­ries will in­crease and the pro­duc­tion will be ma­na­ged by the di­gi­tal ( 7) so that the net­works can go in both di­rec­tions ( 8). At the present time, sto­rage bat­te­ries and se­cond­ge­ne­ra­tion bat­te­ries ( eg Nis­san Re­nault in Is­sy­les­Mou­li­neaux) are still in the ex­pe­ri­men­tal stage. New ins­tal­la­tions are now com­pul­so­ry un­der the Ener­gy Tran­si­tion Act ( eg re­char­ging bars in­cor­po­ra­ted in new buil­dings, car­sha­ring, crea­tion of a Eu­ro­pean cor­ri­dor ( bet­ween Gi­bral­tar and Tal­linn) for the re­char­ging of elec­tric ve­hicles on The road, etc.) ( 9).

Un­der these condi­tions, if no­thing changes on the net­work, the cost of the net­work will in­crease as well as the ta­riffs for consu­mers. In ad­di­tion, it will be ne­ces­sa­ry to use ex­tra ener­gy, which is car­bon­ba­sed ( eg Ger­ma­ny with coal).

At the same time, sto­rage is­sues will need to be ad­dres­sed in or­der to in­crease the per­for­mance and sus­tai­na­bi­li­ty of the en­tire va­lue chain of the elec­tri­cal sys­tem.

While the trend of the elec­tri­ci­ty sec­tor is to­wards de­car­bo­ni­sa­tion, the pro­blems cau­sed by the in­trin­sic weak­nesses of re­ne­wable ener­gies are not al­ways re­sol­ved. In­deed, the vo­la­ti­li­ty of pro­duc­tion ge­ne­rates li­mi­ted ca­pa­ci­ty of elec­tri­ci­ty. Mo­reo­ver, in or­der to re­duce the im­pacts of in­ter­mit­tent re­ne­wable ener­gies, sto­rage should be de­ve­lo­ped in or­der to li­mit the ad­verse ef­fects of va­ria­bi­li­ty ( ener­gy pro­duc­tion­sto­ra­ge­re­turn) ( 10).

The elec­tri­ci­ty mar­ket concerns mar­ket players at all stages of the va­lue chain: pro­duc­tion, ex­change, con­sump­tion, use of in­fra­struc­ture. The Eu­ro­pean elec­tri­ci­ty mar­ket fa­vors an op­ti­mi­za­tion of con­sump­tion pat­terns, which are ve­ry he­te­ro­ge­neous in dif­ferent coun­tries and per­iods ( win­ter / sum­mer). Ho­we­ver, they of­fer ma­ny op­por­tu­ni­ties for the Eu­ro­pean elec­tri­ci­ty re­tail mar­ket ( 11): "flui­di­ty of trade bet­ween coun­tries; Term har­mo­ni­za­tion of in­ter­con­nec­tions; De­con­cen­tra­tion of the mar­ket; Flexi­bi­li­ty of tran­sac­tions in OTC markets, wi­thout en­try fees ".