With a fuel oil supply volume of approximately 1 million tonnes and 1 million tonnes of coal processed in 2021, EDF Trading Logistics acts as the EDF group’s agent for fuel oil and bioliquids purchases. It organises fuel oil, bioliquids and coal supply logistics operations for all of the EDF group’s thermal plants in mainland France, Corsica and France’s overseas départements, in close collaboration with DOAAT, EDF PEI and SEI. It controls the coal terminals in the ports of Le Havre and Montoir-de-Bretagne.
In addition, EDF Trading Logistics provides the Group with its expertise in regard to managing risks related to the transportation of fuel oil (hazardous materials), an activity which received ISO 14001 certification that was renewed on 31 October 2019. It is also active in the management of the environmental crises associated with this line of business.
The EDF group’s Research & Development (R&D) activities are handled by the Research & Development Division – EDF R&D and also by certain Group subsidiaries. These activities are complementary and in line with the Group’s raison d’être and CAP 2030 strategy. A Charte R&D coordination scheme for these has been drawn up at Group level.
EDF group’s R&D is both integrated and cross-disciplinary, in order to facilitate synergies and method transfers between the different Divisions within the Group. It employs 2,263 (1) persons worldwide.
Skills cover all the Group’s field of activities: renewable energies and storage, networks, nuclear generation, thermal, hydropower, energy management, trade and services, IT systems and environment. They are specific to particular disciplines, business lines and projects, and also come together for work on major systems.
EDF R&D is organised on a multi-site basis, with several sites located in France and abroad, mainly in Germany, the UK, China, the United States, Singapore and Italy.
EDF R&D’s main centre is located in Palaiseau on the Paris-Saclay campus where it opened in 2016. At the end of 2021, EDF R&D employed 1,782 people in France, representing 30 nationalities.
The main missions of the EDF group’s Research and Development Division (R&D) are firstly, to support the Group’s Divisions and subsidiaries on a day to day basis, by providing them with its top-level expertise and high performance practices, and secondly, to contribute to building the Group’s future by anticipating the developments and major challenges with which it is confronted.
R&D is engaged in pursuit of the goal expressed in EDF’s raison d’être. Its avenues of research, which are drawn from its new Plan Scientifique, are structured around four broad topics:
In 2021, the EDF group’s total R&D budget was €661 million. It comprises EDF R&D budget of €487 million, as well as the R&D carried out by certain wholly-owned subsidiaries, mainly Framatome, EDF Energy and Edison. This is one of the largest R&D budgets of any major electricity company.
It should be noted that 99% of EDF R&D’s operating budget in France is dedicated to decarbonation and energy systems transition. In particular, the expenditure covers research into energy efficiency, uses of electricity as a substitute for fossil fuels, renewable energies and their insertion into the grid, energy production and storage, carbon-free hydrogen and its applications for decarbonising the economy, sustainable cities, the local impacts of climate change and other environmental issues such as biodiversity, water quality, and the mitigation of disturbances.
EDF R&D’s work serves all the Group’s business lines. For each of them, it offers technological solutions designed to improve their performance, and prepare the Group’s future in the longer term. It is one of the reasons why EDF has become a leading global industrial group that provides low-carbon electricity systems.
Its avenues of research focus on four main areas, in line with the Group’s raison d’être and CAP 2030 strategy:
The research work on grids on behalf of Enedis is carried out under a services contract, which defines obligations that guarantee the protection of commercially sensitive information and compliance with the principle of the independent management of the distributor. Enedis also runs its own R&D programme, independently of EDF.
In parallel with the publication by the European Commission of its “Fit for 55” roadmap and of the Plan France 2030, EDF R&D is working on the topic of the extensive decarbonation of the industrial sector. The work is based on knowledge of the main emitting sectors (steel, cement, chemicals, agri-food, paper, etc.) and advocacy of levers to reduce their carbon intensity. These levers range from those that have been in use for some time (resistance, induction, electric arc furnaces and mechanical vapour compression) to those that are more innovative. There is strong focus on the development of very high temperature heat pumps (for temperatures that exceed 100°C).
The implementation of the new RE2020 regulations was also one of the key events of 2021. In order to encourage the adoption of these new regulations by project owners and extend their influence to existing structures, EDF R&D is undertaking joint development work on heat pump solutions with manufacturers in order to widen the range and cover all the needs, and is monitoring feedback from benchmark operations that will make it possible to establish scientifically and share widely the performance levels obtained in situ by this equipment.
Households are devoting more and more of their savings to building or renovating less carbon-intensive homes. EDF R&D is fully committed to supporting the Group’s business lines by designing tools for the pre-sale phase (sizing), help with installation (algorithms for automatic parameterization) and operational support (cause tree and e-maintenance).
In the field of mobility, manufacturers are shifting their vehicle ranges more quickly to low-carbon products. Reliability, durability, interoperability and simplicity are the watchwords that accompany EDF R&D’s actions to support the Group’s business lines. The teams of researchers are developing smart charging solutions, which will make it possible in the near future for mobility not to place additional strain on the grid during peak consumption times and to offer flexible options that will enable the system to function in an optimal and sustainable manner, with a significant portion of the electricity that will come from variable renewable energy sources.
(1) Calculated as full-time FTEs.
