French power grid needs 100 billion euros of investment by 2040, says operator

By Forrest Crellin

PARIS (Reuters) - France needs to spend about 100 billion euros ($104 billion) by 2040 to reinforce and expand its electricity grid as demand grows, including from data centres, and as new nuclear reactors come online, state grid operator RTE said on Thursday.

The French government has ambitious plans to become Europe's artificial intelligence hub and said earlier this week that companies had pledged about 109 billion euros to spend on infrastructure like data centres.

To supply those new facilities, France will need extensive grid development, said RTE.

More than half the anticipated 100 billion euros needed for grid investment will be for new demand centres including data centres and EV stations and to connect low-carbon power supply like nuclear and renewables, RTE said.

"France is in a paradoxical situation: on the one hand, a large number of projects are emerging in the region...On the other hand, less than 15% of the projects are confirmed and have formally requested to start work on the network," RTE said.

The annual investment rate in the electricity grid will need to more than triple in the next five years, up to 7.5 billion euros from 2.3 billion in 2024, but the investment is expected to cost less than neighbour Germany's plans, the report said.

France has plans to build six new nuclear reactors that are expected to help provide power supply for future electrification.

So far, more than 140 low-carbon or digital projects totalling 21 gigawatts (GW) have signed contracts for grid connection, RTE said, more than double the power currently used by those sectors, which include renewable energy and nuclear projects as well as data centres.

Requests for further grid demand continue, particularly for data centres, it added.

($1 = 0.9593 euros)

(Reporting by Forrest Crellin;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)