EDF_REGISTRATION_DOCUMENT_2017
1.
PRESENTATION OF EDF GROUP Property, plant and equipment
solutions for clients and offshore wind farm projects for which it is the reference centre for all the Group's projects in France and abroad. The Beijing centre is an asset in terms of participating in large-scale Chinese smart grid demonstration projects for smart grids, or nuclear facilities (see section 3.6.1 “Activities in China”). The centre was reorganised in 2017 to provide direct support to EDF China's business units'in line with EDF China's “Go 2020” strategic plan. It thus supports sustainable cities and more broadly local multi-energy projects combining electricity, heating and cooling networks. It also provides support to the new renewable energy development business unit established in China and the centre continues the cooperation initiated with the Chinese Academy of Science’s Institute of Electrical Engineering on research and innovation work carried out at an experimentation facility dedicated to thermodynamic solar technology located in Badaling. Lastly, the centre has developed an extensive partnership with the China Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI) of the network operator, State Grid, in the field of networks and notably on the issue of integrating renewable energies in the grids. The main goal of the Edison R&D team in Italy is to coordinate all gas research programmes for the EDF group. In support of Edison's business development goals, the centre has also developed programmes in the field of digital customer solutions and the “Connected Home” in partnership with the French and UK R&D teams whose business units are facing the same challenges in terms of developing new customer services in competition-oriented markets. This work relies on the joint Edison and the University of Turin laboratory established to deal with these issues in 2015. As noted above, the Edison R&D centre is actively involved in research work in the hydrogen field. The United States R&D and innovation sector is one of the largest and most buoyant in the world. EDF has had an R&D and Innovation team in Silicon Valley for several years, which supports EDF’s development in the USA and contributes to innovation in the Group. EDF Innovation Lab’s areas of activity include, in particular, analysis of technological, digital and regulatory trends and the assessment of new business models for the Group in the USA, in connection with distributed energy resources and microgrids. EDF Innovation Lab has thus supported EDF's International Management which markets an 'off-grid' access to electricity offerings in certain African countries with the Californian company OGE. Since 2017 EDF Lab has participated in several innovative electric mobility and micro-grid demonstration projects. EDF Innovation Lab has also contributed to the long-standing partnerships developed by EDF with elite establishments such as EPRI, MIT and UC Berkeley. It has just launched a partnership initiative with Stanford.
EDF Lab Singapore was set up in early 2014 primarily to support the promotion and implementation of the Group’s know-how concerning sustainable cities and to market the various solutions described above to Singapore’s urban planning agencies. Within the framework of the new City of the Future contract signed in November 2017 between EDF and Singapore's Housing Development Board, the city's main property developer, EDF has continued to increment its innovative 3D urban modelling tool with new modules integrating heat islands and mobility. 2017 marks the development of a new activity in the field of cost-effective micro-grids for insular or non-connected regions of South East Asia powered today by diesel generators. In mid-October 2017 the centre signed an agreement with NTU University for the development, construction and operation, for research purposes, of an innovative and cost-effective micro-grid on Semakau, an island territory of Singapore. 1.6.4 Intellectual property plays a major role in protecting the EDF group’s technologies and know-how from competition, and in leveraging these assets through licensing agreements. EDF is keen to strengthen its industrial property portfolio in order to make the most of its capacity for innovation and technological expertise. The portfolio is comprised of patents, registered software and formalised expertise. Patents At the end of 2017, EDF’s portfolio comprised 604 patented innovations, protected by 1,855 property titles in France and abroad. The strengthening of the patent portfolio is a priority. It aims to facilitate R&D cooperation, protect the development of EDF's activities, to contribute to the Group's external image, to boost researcher motivation and to further enhance the value of inventions. In 2017, EDF filed 64 patent (1) applications (63 in 2016). Trademarks “EDF” is a registered trademark in over 90 countries. The Group's name is an essential part of its image and heritage: the EDF brand, Internet domain names and logos are therefore constantly monitored, in order to protect them against any unauthorised use likely to jeopardise the Group's image. Moreover, following the work to increase the status of the “EDF” brand, the Company has entered into brand licensing agreements with those of its subsidiaries that use the “EDF” brand. The Group has also registered a large number of other trademarks, in particular those relating to the business of its various subsidiaries. At the end of 2017, the EDF group’s brand portfolio comprised some 456 names, protected by over 1,280 property titles. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY POLICY
1.7
PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT
1.7.1
SERVICE SECTOR REAL ESTATE ASSETS - EDF AND ENEDIS IN FRANCE
parties (leases and concessions). In 2017, approximately 210 of these assets were disposed of, representing 0.4 million square metres or so in usable floor area. Among these 210 real estate assets, a portfolio of 186 assets was sold by Sofilo. The Real Estate Division is in charge of real estate asset management, lease management, the technical operation of building as well as the operation-maintenance of the facilities and the services provided to occupants, by offering areas through a sub-lease system for Group entities and units. By taking leases from third parties, the Real Estate Executive Management made lease commitments for EDF amounting to €942 million for the period from 2018 to 2032.
EDF’s Real Estate Division, comprised of the Group’s Real Estate Department and its real estate subsidiaries, operates in France as the real estate service provider for EDF and Enedis’s entities by managing and optimising a real estate portfolio of nearly 5.0 million square metres of offices and commercial premises, of which approximately 58% are fully owned by the Group and 42% are leased from third
Note: Enedis has also filed three patent applications. (1)
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EDF I Reference Document 2017
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