EDF / 2018 Reference document

PRESENTATION OF EDF GROUP Research & development, patents and licences

Saclay to test new concepts of operation and maintenance. ConnexLab is part of the nuclear sector's digital transition initiative bringing together EDF and its subsidiary Framatome), the CEA, equipment manufacturers, maintenance companies and digital model suppliers. In association with other European leaders in the nuclear sector, in 2012 EDF R&D set up NUGENIA, an international non-profit organisation whose purpose is to develop a single cooperative framework for R&D in Europe for second- and third-generation nuclear systems, as part of the European Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform (SNETP). The organisation has 101 members from 25 countries representing the manufacturing, research and safety regulation sectors among others. Chaired by EDF, it will facilitate the creation of synergies and joint projects between members or with national R&D programmes in the following fields: safety and risk analysis, serious accidents, safety and risk analysis; serious accidents; reactor cores and performance; component integrity and ageing; fuel, waste and decommissioning; “Innovative Generation III Design”; as well as into cross-functional issues such as the harmonisation of practices (mainly in the safety field) and non-destructive controls and tests. The second priority is support for the development of renewable energies. These are playing a growing role in the energy landscape both within Europe and worldwide; EDF is already a major player here, and is seeking to expand its role in the field still further. The Group has set itself ambitious goals under its CAP 2030 plan, and in late 2017 and 2018 launched a solar power plan and a storage plan. For renewable energies, storage and hydrogen, the goal of R&D is to identify technological breakthroughs that offer a significant competitive advantage, and to help the most promising technologies emerge industrially, working in partnership with academia, industry and startups. EDF is investigating a wide range of renewable energies and storage solutions: hydropower, photovoltaics, onshore and offshore wind power, solar thermodynamic power, biomass, marine energies, geothermal power, electrochemical batteries, flywheels, flow cells, electrolysers, fuel cells (hydrogen) and thermal energy storage (heat and ice). R&D is also working to develop tools and methods to enhance operational performance and optimise the cost of the EDF group’s electricity generation system projects that are based on renewable energies and storage, with a number of aims in mind: contributing to the success of fixed-foundation and floating offshore wind farm ■ projects, of EDF Renewables in France and in the United Kingdom by reducing investment risks: EDF R&D, for example, provides its expertise in the Group's offshore wind farm projects, in particular in terms of turbine system and foundation design, turbine certification, production assessment methods, by limiting uncertainties. As an example of how it supports offshore wind power development, EDF's R&D analysed feedback from the Blyth wind farm in the UK and with a British partner built a dedicated diagnostic bench to test the main rotation of the Haliade turbine. R&D is also preparing the future by studying floating offshore windfarm technologies. As such, R&D assessed the floating structures of EDF's Provence Grand Large offshore floating wind farm using in-house modelling tools; increasing the competitiveness of the EDF group's PV and wind farm projects, ■ through enhanced performance (predictive maintenance) and through the extended lifespan of PV and wind farm facilities, performance qualification brought by innovations, notably through demonstration projects with large-scale wind turbines, and also to show the potential reductions for tidal energy. EDF R&D designed and assembled a tool to measure the potential output of a solar park fitted with bifacial solar panels as well as a hybrid model (comprising a physical model and big data) to predict the long-term wear and tear of solar modules; helping the EDF group gain access to new markets, in particular, to be a ■ benchmark in thermodynamic solar power and succeed in the deployment of the “Mon soleil et moi” self-consumption offering without grid feeding. EDF's R&D drew on EDF Renewables' experience in Morocco in order to limit technical risks

and promote innovative hybrid solutions combining CSP with thermal storage and to more accurately estimate falling intensity of sunshine. R&D also developed new algorithms for EDF ENRS that maximise solar power self-consumption; enhancing operational performance, whereby R&D is participating, for example, ■ in the development of an onshore wind farm performance analysis tool and is testing solutions for increasing the return of a wind farm in an electricity market through an efficient control system jointly integrating several dimensions (production optimisation, maintenance, lifespan, system services) to enhance EDF Renewables' operational performance. EDF R&D also assesses and tests the contribution of new business sectors to improve business performance (virtual and augmented reality, 3D printers, stealth blades, etc.). In 2018 R&D helped define data infrastructure and lent assistance to EDF Renewables in building its DataLake; controlling the technical and economic impact on the electricity system, and ■ managing the electricity system balance as renewable energies are incorporated. The work concerns the definition of procedures for renewable energies to be inserted into electricity grids. This involves analysing the different solutions allowing the integration of intermittent renewable energies and the evaluation of constraints and the cost of their integration into large systems: storage, super grids, smart grids, demand-side management, etc.; devising services and offerings that EDF might offer its customers in the area of ■ stationary storage and design better storage/renewable energies/converter products according to planned use in order to optimise investment and running costs; anticipating and contributing to the emergence of forthcoming major ■ breakthroughs in the areas of renewable energies and storage (technological or business model) and assessing them; boosting deployment of internal and external innovations to the Divisions. ■ The third priority is to improve the environmental acceptability of our production facilities. Climate change, the marked decline in biodiversity and Earth’s limited resources make EDF a legitimate choice for a low carbon energy mix. The aim of the R&D Division’s initiatives is: through its scientific and technical expertise, to contribute to the way in which ■ the regulatory environment is implemented and evolves, in a way that is proportionate to the key issues; to provide justification for our production facilities being on par with the best ■ available techniques, at an economically acceptable cost, and to leverage these best available techniques in new projects; to acknowledge and manage our impact on terrestrial and aquatic environments, ■ enhance the value of our improvement initiatives, limit and enhance the value of our sub-products; to know how to anticipate and address new developments in climate change, for ■ example by becoming more familiar with the robustness of the heat sinks for power plants in light of future climate change; to contribute to leveraging our positive actions with regard to local stakeholders. ■ AND PARTNERSHIPS To conduct its research and development programmes, EDF R&D develops a large number of partnerships worldwide, the purpose of which is to maintain its expertise at the highest global level in the disciplines central to EDF’s concerns, and to supplement its internal reservoir of skills. R&D’s partnership policy is embodied in a variety of ways, both nationally and internationally. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS 1.6.3

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EDF I Reference Document 2018