On December 19, 1978, at 8:27 AM, 80% of France was plunged into darkness for four hours. Excessive electricity consumption demand caused the national grid to collapse. , paralyzing subways, elevators, and traffic lights. More recently, on April 28, 2025, Spain and Portugal experienced a major blackout following cascading overvoltages: this uncontrollable chain reaction was the first incident of its kind in Europe, and possibly worldwide. With the increasing electrification of our energy uses and the massive integration of intermittent renewable energy sources, the risk of blackouts has never been greater. The consequences would be significant and easily imaginable: no internet, GPS, or medical systems in hospitals... Faced with this reality, electrical flexibility has become a central challenge for cities, industries, and commercial building managers. For several years, I have been supporting municipalities and businesses in managing their energy consumption, and I observe that electrical grid flexibility has become the focal point of their concerns. The question is no longer "should we be interested?" but "how can we maximize its benefits?"
Local elected officials, industrial managers, and hospital or airport facility managers all seek to ensure energy security, strengthen infrastructure resilience, and seize new economic opportunities. Electrical flexibility, by enabling real-time consumption or production adjustments, addresses these challenges while accelerating the transition to a low-carbon model. The ability to modulate electricity demand or supply becomes a strategic asset, both for preventing blackouts and generating additional revenue.
“Flexibility has become a central challenge. France's historic electricity supplier and all electricity providers are working to bring greater flexibility to electrical usage.”
Fabien Laleuf, Director ABB Electrification France.
Electrical flexibility is now at the heart of energy strategies, offering concrete solutions to the challenges of ecological transformation.
Key points to remember
- Grid security: ensuring the balance between production and consumption to avoid outages – a 24/7 imperative
- Energy sovereignty: ensuring adaptation to crises and market fluctuations
- Decarbonization: promoting the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources. By 2060, they will represent 86% of the European electricity mix compared to 48% in 2023
- Value creation: generating new revenue through participation in flexibility mechanisms
- Multi-stakeholder collaboration: fostering convergence between producers, consumers and grid operators
Discover how electrical flexibility can transform your energy management and enhance the value of your assets.
Electrical flexibility, essential for local energy stability
I observe that electrical supply security is increasingly concerning local and industrial decision-makers. Our electrical system faces a complex equation: consumption is increasing with the electrification of uses (mobility, heating, industry, digital), while we are massively integrating renewable energy sources with intermittent production.
Grid operators must manage flexibility in real time to guarantee stability. Energy crises (climatic or geopolitical) test the adaptive capacity of infrastructures. During the January 2024 cold wave, industrial companies temporarily reduced their consumption, avoiding a regional blackout. During Storm Ciaran, hospitals switched to backup generators or reduced their non-critical consumption, ensuring continuity of care.
Flexibility also enables participation in capacity or curtailment markets, thus generating additional revenue. Industrial companies optimize their ability to modulate their consumption, communities optimize their energy expenses.
“It represents the first pillar of energy efficiency. Electrical flexibility allows our partners to either consume less or consume at the best time, in order to provide the same service to their users while guaranteeing an appropriate service to the French public transport network operator.”
Adrien Doré, Head of Expansion & Country Manager for Spain/Italy/UK, offre “Flexcity”.
“Flexcity” solution, the orchestrator of electrical flexibility in Europe
Our dedicated offering, “Flexcity”, delivers a comprehensive approach to electrical flexibility, positioning us as a leading player in grid flexibility across the European market.This solution relies on an intelligent technology platform that continuously monitors the state of the electrical grid and acts in real time to maintain the balance between production and consumption.
The principle is simple yet powerful: we install intelligent devices at our clients' sites – batteries, factories, incinerators, wastewater treatment plants, shopping centers, hospitals, airports, etc. This equipment continuously measures their electricity consumption and/or production, connecting them to our platform. When an imbalance appears on the grid – for example, excessive demand during a cold wave, or excess solar and wind production on a windy, sunny day – we request our partner sites to temporarily modulate their consumption or production. In exchange, they receive compensation.
This modulation occurs automatically, through algorithms that analyze the grid and connected sites in real-time. Everything happens within seconds or minutes without impacting service quality. For drinking water or wastewater treatment plants, for example – where electricity consumption represents a significant portion of operating costs – we can modulate equipment startups and shutdowns while guaranteeing treatment quality. If significant deviations occur, we can still act manually or request our clients to do more to help maintain balance.
“It addresses the need to balance electricity supply and demand on the grid at all times. With the rise of renewable energy sources—and their intermittency issues—in the energy mix, electrical flexibility takes on its full meaning, as we are able to intelligently manage demand when we cannot influence production.”
Adrien Doré, Head of Expansion & Country Manager for Spain/Italy/UK, offre “Flexcity”, Veolia.
The numbers speak for themselves: we optimize 10,000 sites across Europe, delivering 2 GW of flexible capacity—equivalent to two nuclear power plants—ready to be mobilized in just minutes.This capacity allows us to intervene effectively to stabilize the grid and avoid tension situations that could lead to widespread outages.
A win-win economic model in a favorable regulatory framework
For my contacts, financing and profitability are clearly top priorities.. The good news is that electrical flexibility creates direct economic value for participating sites, without requiring initial investment on their part.
The model is transparent: by agreeing to modulate your electricity consumption or production during critical periods, you receive compensation from electrical grid operators. This compensation offsets operational constraints and creates a new revenue stream. For industries and commercial sites, electricity consumption often represents a significant portion of operating costs. Flexibility not only reduces these costs by optimizing consumption timing but also generates additional revenue.
The "Flexcity" solution monetizes this flexible potential for industrial and commercial sites – retail, transportation, real estate – reducing overall electricity supply costs.
For drinking water production plants and especially wastewater treatment plants, electricity consumption can represent up to 30% of operating costs. For waste incineration and recovery centers, electricity-related revenues are paramount, and the "Flexcity" solution significantly increases them. That's why we have developed dedicated offerings addressing the specific needs of each site type: water treatment plants, incineration centers, factories with heat requirements. Our approach is risk-free for our clients: we handle communication equipment installation and operational flexibility management.
From a regulatory standpoint, the European framework is rapidly evolving to promote electrical flexibility. European energy and climate directives set ambitious targets: 86% renewable energy in the European electricity mix by 2060, compared to 48% in 2023. This massive transition to renewables – accompanied by a drastic reduction in nuclear (11%) and fossil fuels (3%) – makes flexibility no longer optional but absolutely essential to compensate for the intermittent nature of solar and wind energy.
Member states are implementing capacity mechanisms and flexibility markets that compensate actors capable of modulating their consumption. This regulatory evolution creates a favorable environment for monetizing flexibility and transforming a technical constraint into an economic opportunity.
Concrete references across Europe
I work daily with clients who reap concrete benefits, throughout Europe. Across the continent, the electrical flexibility solution "Flexcity" has proven its ability to stabilize national electrical grids.
Systemec transforms its backup generators into a source of revenue –Netherlands and Germany
Systemec, a data center operator in the Netherlands, has transformed its mandatory monthly generator tests into a revenue source through the "Flexcity" solution. Since 2014, its backup generators automatically inject their production into the Dutch grid during imbalances, via the R3 UP Testpool service. This solution enables Systemec to monetize a regulatory constraint, receive risk-free compensation, and reduce energy costs. As confirmed by Sjoerd Derkx, Director: "We save on our costs while reducing our environmental impact. This is of great value to us." A concrete example of electrical flexibility creating economic and environmental value.
Several hundred drinking water and wastewater treatment sites optimize their electrical flexibility – France
Veolia operates over 5,000 water treatment sites in France where electricity consumption represents a major portion of operating costs. Since 2014, hundreds of these sites have participated in electrical flexibility mechanisms via the "Flexcity" solution. The solution exploits network storage capacities and the natural inertia of biological processes to modulate consumption during grid tension periods. Drinking water sites temporarily stop pumping groups, while wastewater treatment plants shift aeration cycles, never compromising water quality. This approach optimizes energy bills, contributes to local electricity supply security, and actively supports the energy transition.
What strikes me is the diversity of actors joining our platform. From municipal wastewater treatment plants to large industrial factories, they all recognize that electrical flexibility is not only a critical energy security measure but also a significant economic opportunity.. Temporarily modulating electricity production and consumption prevents blackouts like the 1978 incident and improves environmental impact by facilitating the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources into the production energy mix.
8 steps to improve your electricity consumption
Wondering how to engage your organization in this approach?
Here are the key steps I recommend to transform your electricity consumption into a strategic asset:
- Assess your flexibility potential: Identify equipment and processes that can be modulated without impacting your operations (electric heating systems, cogeneration, major consumers like pumps or production lines, gas or steam turbines, backup generators, water treatment facilities)
- Analyze your consumption profile: Understand your consumption or production peaks and off-peak periods to identify upward or downward modulation opportunities
- Quantify economic benefits: Estimate potential revenues from monetizing your flexibility and savings on your energy bill – electricity consumption becomes a genuine negotiation lever
- Choose the right technology partner: Select a proven solution capable of automatically controlling your equipment through constant grid monitoring and real-time modulation
- Start with a pilot: Test the solution on a limited scope before scaling up – we install intelligent communication equipment that measures your consumption and connects you to the "Flexcity" platform
- Train your teams: Ensure your technical teams understand flexibility operations and benefits for your organization
- Monitor and optimize: Track performance via real-time dashboards and progressively adjust your flexibility strategy
- Commit long-term: Electrical flexibility is not a one-time project but an ongoing commitment to energy security and ecological transition
Regularly supporting a wide range of organizations in this approach – industries, commercial buildings, wastewater treatment or incineration plants – I have observed that structured support, from initial audit to daily operations, is what truly drives results.
Toward Proactive and Collaborative Electrical Flexibility Management
Electrical flexibility is no longer optional; it's a strategic necessity for all major electricity consumers and producers. It enables you to secure your energy supply, reduce costs, generate new revenue, and actively contribute to the energy transition. As a professional actively involved in the energy transition, I have seen municipalities transform their energy management, industrial players monetize their assets, and facility managers strengthen their resilience. The key lies in anticipation, collaboration, and innovation.
"Electrical system flexibility is the cornerstone of the energy transition"
RTE, French electricity transmission network operator, 2024, 2024.
To succeed, it is essential to rely on experienced partners, choose solutions adapted to each context, and adopt a proactive approach. Flexibility not only provides solutions to current challenges but also paves the way for new business models and strengthened energy sovereignty. Request to be contacted by an expert.
This article contains text partially generated with the assistance of generative artificial intelligence, based on the Group’s knowledge base. The content has been reviewed and validated by the expert.