In Brazil, Citelum has won a new contract in Imperatriz in the State of Maranhão tomanage 24,375 lights for a five-year period.
In Chili, Citelum has embarked on LED replacement of 8,238 lights in Los Andes, with the aim of achieving 40% energy savings. Maintenance of the lighting fleet will be provided for 10 years, with the help of the MUSE® CMMS.
In Denmark, Citelum is now responsible for managing lighting in 7 municipalities,and has diversified its business in Copenhagen, lighting high-traffic squares and buildings, as well as installing external lighting for the new Cityringen metro line.
In Spain, Palma de Majorca has extended its agreement with the Citelum and ComsaService consortium to benefit from new connected services, including noise sensors in lights; these flash when a threshold value is reached. There are also electric vehicle charging outlets connected directly to road lighting.
In India, Citelum manages 180,000 lights in Ahmedabad, including 6,000 smart lights on a “bus rapid transit” corridor. Citelum is also upgrading 74,000 lights in the city of Noida for Tata Projects Ltd.
In Italy, Citelum manages over 200 towns and cities, and has equipped the town of L’Aquila with the first system in Europe to adjust lighting in line with circadian rhythms. This solution will help bring down the town’s energy use, reduce its CO2 emissions, and improve quality of life for local residents.
Citelum is also continuing to expand its industrial customer portfolio, and has started work to optimise lighting on a Renault industrial site in Novo Mesto, Slovenia.
Innovation has always been at the core of EDF’s strategy. In June 2017, in order to broaden the scope of its activities, the EDF group created a new structure called EDF New Business to act as EDF’s start-up incubator.
In October 2018 EDF New Business was renamed EDF Pulse Croissance to bring it under the Group’s innovation arm (EDF Pulse) and raise its profile.
The purpose of EDF Pulse Croissance is to look into the energy and digital transition and create new growth drivers for the Group by providing innovative and competitive products and services to households, businesses and local authorities.
EDF Pulse Croissance is a corporate venture entity and an intrapreneurial project incubator, with financing capacity of some €60 million (excluding exceptional transactions) in 2019.
Four areas will be prioritised:
EDF Pulse Croissance boasts a tight-knit team that works closely with EDF’s R&D and functional Divisions as well as all of the Group’s resources committed to open innovation and partnerships with startups.
As an intrapreneurship incubator, EDF Pulse Croissance draws on the ideas and expertise of the Group’s employees and is in a position to provide them dedicated support to assist them in developing their project as part of an entrepreneurial approach benefiting the Group and its employee entrepreneurs.
To succeed in developing new business activities and innovative solutions in new technologies, EDF Pulse Croissance can invest directly in fledgling start-ups or put them in contact with the Group’s ecosystem – particularly dedicated funds such as Electranova Capital in which EDF Pulse Croissance has a stake.
The objective of investing in venture capital funds is to strengthen our position in the innovation ecosystem, reduce EDF’s financial exposure and develop skills and synergies within the Group. This investment strategy is adapted to the Group’s challenges and focuses on generalist or multi-sector funds, such as smart city or clean tech, chosen for their reputation in an active and relevant geographical area for EDF, and on specialist or seed funds in new technologies to better integrate complementary technological building blocks (particularly in cyber security) with those notably supported by R&D. This strategy has led the Group to invest in 14 thematic funds, mainly in France but also in Europe, North America and China. The investments and collaborations will generate financial income, deal flows and collaboration opportunities with startups, and investment opportunities in new businesses.
The entity may also create joint ventures with start-ups capable of exploring new business models and conquering new markets in France and internationally. For the most part, the investment is conceived as part of a global industrial and commercial partnership.
The start-ups supported by EDF Pulse Croissance operate in various sectors related to energy and digital transformation. Examples include Metroscope’s artificial intelligence solution to improve the performance of industrial facilities; financing of innovative energy efficiency projects with Perfesco; the sale of industrial cybersecurity solutions with Seclab; energy management systems for local electrical systems through energy storage and forecasting with EDF Store & Forecast; the aggregator for renewable energy production and consumption flexibility with Agregio, and finally stationary electricity storage systems using batteries based on Zinium’s zinc-air technology. Since it was set up, EDF Pulse Croissance has invested in 19 start-ups and built up stakes in 14 investment funds.
In 2019, EDF Pulse Croissance invested in particular in two start ups and helped creating 3 subsidiaries that emerged from intrapreneurial projects:
Created in April 2019, Hynamics(1) a wholly-owned subsidiary devoted to the production and marketing of low-carbon hydrogen produced by water electrolysis. It is directed at industrial markets and heavy-duty mobility. Hynamics installs, operates, and maintains hydrogen production plant, investing in the infrastructures required for industrial customers that use hydrogen as a raw material, such as refineries, glassworks, the food and chemicals industries, etc. For players in public and professional mobility, Hynamics is helping to build a network of hydrogen re charging stations for fleets of heavy-duty electric vehicles such as trains, buses, refuse collection trucks, commercial vehicles, and river vessels.
Launched in February 2019, DREEV(2) is a joint venture set up by EDF Pulse Croissance and Californian start-up NUVVE. It develops smart charging control solutions that are cost-effective for customers (V1G), as well as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) solutions. The latter is the most innovative aspect of smart charging, and the most promising: electric vehicle charging and even discharging can be optimised by managing electric vehicle charging power efficiently, flexibly, and economically. DREEV provides companies and local authorities with turnkey solutions comprising consultancy, installation, and operation of terminals and digital services for theirs vehicle fleets.
In June 2019, EDF Pulse Croissance acquired German firm energy2market (e2m), an experienced aggregator of renewable production and local flexibility, and one of the leading market players in Germany. e2m provides short-term flexibility management products and services, markets renewable energy production, and markets its own VPP (Virtual Power Plant) platform on an SaaS (Software as a Service) basis. e2m has2,000 customers, most of them in Germany; it manages and operates 4,500connected, decentralised energy production and flexibility sites (wind farms, solar farms, biomass, etc.) with total installed capacity of 3GW.
(1) See EDF’s press release of 2 April 2019: “EDF launches Hynamics, a subsidiary to produce and market low-carbon hydrogen”.\
(2) See EDF’s press release of 20 May 2019: “EDF launches DREEV, its new subsidiary to turn innovative smart charging solutions into a reality”.
(3) See EDF’s press release of 13 June 2019: "EDF acquires energy2market (e2m), strengthening its position in decentralised energy management in Europe"
