Paris, France, May 10, 2021—Cosmo Tech, a global software provider of 360° Simulation Digital Twins, announced today the reinforcement of its partnership with the French electric transmission utility, Réseau de Transport d’Electricité (RTE). In the partnership, RTE will extend its usage of Cosmo Tech’s Simulation Digital Twin technology to optimize the management of its assets and to envision the future of the power system. This announcement is a testament to the positive achievements of the partnership and demonstrates the strength of the company’s next generation of Simulation Digital Twin technologies in modeling and simulating complex systems.
Like other electric transmission utilities in Europe, RTE faces increased pressure to ensure the modernization and reliability of its energy network. The French company must ensure the maintenance and renewal of its aging network of 105,000 kilometers of high- and extra-high-voltage lines and 200,000 transmission towers. The problem is heightened by the fact that RTE must also design its infrastructure to be compatible with the potential evolution of the energy landscape while ensuring the robustness of its network in light of increasing uncertainties.
Meeting these challenges means that decisions taken by RTE today will impact the grid during the next sixty years on a system that is considered to be among the most complex ever invented by humanity.
“To have visibility of the consequences of our short- and long-term choices and to propose robust strategies, we need to be able to simulate several futures. Cosmo Tech’s Simulation Digital Twins allow us to meet this challenge,” said Gabriel Bareux, Director of RTE’s R&D.
The initial project began in 2013 when RTE wanted better visibility of the impact of decisions on its network and possible ways of optimizing its asset management strategy. Until then, the maintenance and renewal of the various types of equipment were handled without considering their technical, functional, and economic interdependence. The French electric transmission utility chose Cosmo Tech’s technology for its approach to complex systems and its strong modeling capabilities.
Simulation Digital Twins are virtual replicas of the real world that make it possible to represent the evolution of an organization’s behavior in all its complexity by integrating all its processes and constraints, whether budgetary, technical, or human. RTE uses Cosmo Tech’s software to simulate and optimize its asset management strategy in several use cases.
In 2020, the partnership was a major success. RTE relied on Cosmo Tech’s solution to justify its business plan to the French Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE). Sharing objective data showing that increasing the maintenance budget leads to substantial savings on the overall budget in the medium term, the regulator granted RTE a 15% budget increase for asset management. In its public report, the CRE requested RTE to use the same method, based on Cosmo Tech, for all its asset management plans.
Today, RTE is one of the most advanced Electric Transmission Utilities in Europe in the optimization of asset management strategy and the use of Simulation Digital Twins. By 2023, the partnership aims to extend the use of Cosmo Tech’s solutions throughout its asset management to better integrate regional knowledge for more efficient global management and optimized allocation of its investment programs.
“There are different ways to calculate optimal strategies, but only simulation can reassure us or, on the contrary, alert us to potential pitfalls. The simulation capabilities of Cosmo Tech’s Digital Twins provide structure in a context of rapid transformation and uncertainties. The broadening of our partnership will allow us the possibility to expand our simulation capability, to meet our network’s future challenges, and create an efficient national and regional dialogue,” said Bareux.
“We are proud of RTE’s confidence in us. The results demonstrate why simulation digital twins are essential for finding new ways of optimizing and aligning all stakeholders to reconcile often contradictory objectives between cost reduction, efficiency, resilience, and sustainable development,” explains Michel Morvan, executive chairman and co-founder of Cosmo Tech.
“The partnership is taking a new step forward, and we are convinced that a 360°, unified and forward-looking vision of asset management is key to accompany the rapid transformation of utility networks,” adds Hugues de Bantel, co-founder and CEO of Cosmo Tech.
About RTE
RTE, “Réseau de Transport d’Électricité” (Electricity Transmission System), is the French transmission system operator. Its public service mission is to provide to all of its customers economical, reliable and clean access to electrical power. RTE connects its customers using an adapted network, providing them with targeted and valuable solutions for economic efficiency, respect for the environment and supply security. For this purpose, RTE manages, maintains and develops the high and extra-high voltage transmission grid. RTE is responsible for keeping the balance between supply and demand in a reliable and safe electricity system. RTE transmits electricity between suppliers (French and European) and users; industrial consumers directly connected to the transmission grid and distributors. With 105 660 km of 63 000 to 400 000 volt lines and 50 cross-border lines, the French grid is connected to 33
European countries providing electricity trading opportunities essential for economic optimisation of the electricity system. RTE has 9 000 employees.
About Cosmo Tech
Cosmo Tech designs Simulation Digital Twin software that simulates operational strategies to solve the most complex industrial problems and lead enterprise decision-making. This new class of software provides holistic and dynamic digital twin simulation that leverages both predictive and prescriptive analytics. Founded in 2010, Cosmo Tech is a global pioneer in the modeling of complex systems. Leading companies from the manufacturing, automotive, energy, and transport sectors rely on Cosmo Tech’s scalable solutions to better understand the impact of their decisions and ensure a future that is robust, resilient, and sustainable.
