EIB finances electricity smart box deployment in France
The European Investment Bank has agreed a €20 million loan – guaranteed by the European Commission – to help finance the deployment of 150,000 smart boxes to actively manage electricity demand in France.
The loan was agreed with a company owned by Meridiam (60%) and Voltalis (40%). A smart box, installed free of charge in homes with electric heating, enables consumers to save energy.
At national and local level, Voltalis aggregates in real time the reductions in electricity consumption in order to offer flexibility to the wholesale markets.
The company aims to install smart boxes in a third of the electrically heated French homes, and deploy this system throughout Europe.
The EIB financing operation is being carried out through the InnovFin Energy Demonstration Projects facility, financed under the EU’s framework programme for research and innovation, Horizon 2020, and by NER 300, the innovative low-carbon energy programme.
