
PARIS — A decision by France’s energy regulator that seems to defy both
logic and Europe’s green consciousness has set off a political storm
here.At the center is a tiny company that seeks to save consumers money.Two
weeks ago, the French Energy Regulatory Commission, the C.R.E., decided
that Voltalis, a company that installs electricity management devices
in homes and businesses and then manages their use, would have to, in
effect, pay power producers for the power that it saves.Voltalis’s
Bluepod boxes, free to consumers, plug into the home electrical panel
and communicate back to the company’s computers by Internet. When, for
example, summer demand on the electrical grid nears a peak, the system
would automatically turn off air-conditioners for hundreds or thousands
of consumers willing to give up the coolers for a short time to avoid
the need for additional electrical production to come on line.The company says its “distributive load shedding” technology can save
users as much as 10 percent on their electricity bills and save power
producers billions in investments in new plants used only to meet peak
demand. Voltalis’s business model assumes the grid operator pays
Voltalis for help in maintaining supply and demand equilibrium.But
the regulatory commission ruled that Voltalis should pay the power
company because “its service would not be possible without the producer
maintaining production.”The ruling immediately led to charges of too much coziness among entrenched interests in the electrical power sector.Challenges,
a French business magazine, suggested that the country’s electricity
producers, including Électricité de France, which is 85 percent owned
by the government, wielded too much influence over regulators.Voltalis’s chief executive, Pierre Bivas, took his case to the public last weekend, where the reaction has been scathing.“At
this rate, it will soon be obligatory in France to consume large
quantities of electricity, or face taxes and fines, and maybe
imprisonment, too,” the antinuclear group Sortir du Nucléaire said in
criticizing the decision.At peak periods, producers must bring
more costly capacity on line or demand must be limited. Voltalis’s
technology, which is also in use in the United States, changes that.
SOURCE:NYTIMES.COM