1^st speaker : Alain Adrianssens – train stations perspective, short, mid-range and long term

SNCF is about to achieve its objective of 100% trains & stations accessible to disabled people by 2015. In a door-to-door approach, intermodality must be improved. As sustainable mobility inside the territories implies new services, 1800 of the 3000 train stations in France will have bike parking places by 2013.

There is a continuum of transportation modes, from speed zero (parking places) to high speed (TGVs), all of which require real-time information systems. Experiments are currently being undertaken in some stations, regarding electric scooters/car rentals, or providing services like carsharing, or carpooling.

New transport hubs have been eco-designed, as in Bellegarde, Belfort-Montbéliard, Achères, where dematerialized services are provided to the eco-traveler/commuter: timetables, services at the station, but also flux management, travellers’ information, service information, safety, energy management...

It involves different stakeholders: transport operators, urban services & amenities, site operators, institutions.

The aim is to make people's lives easier, offering ATMs, retail shops, public services... eg. re-configured stations in Paris Saint Lazare, or Marseille Saint Charles. Some renovations are even more ambitious, creating an eco-district around the stations of Dijon (including a tramway), Belfort-Montbéliard, Grenoble, or Nantes (project).

There are different types of train stations, depending on passenger traffic, regular or punctual transport (commuters or travellers)... why are there train stations in the middle of nowhere? Because you cannot run a train at 300km/h in a dense urban area!

Taking the example of the Haute Picardie TGV station, local administrations asked that it be in between the main cities of the region. As for Besançon TGV station, old railway tracks have been used to link the TGV station to the centre city station, with a tramway (15km).

Energy released when a train brakes can be used in real time, in dense areas, because there is always another train running not too far, when a train brakes. Otherwise, in less dense areas, the electricity generated this way would be sent back to the grid. In others sectors of activity, mostly in industry, flywheels can be used.

In Valence or Avignon, in southern France, there are capacities for photovoltaic electricity production, plus non-negligible quantities of energy could be gained when 300T trains brake, that is several hundred kWh. However, the idea of piezo-electricity production is at an embryonary stage, for now, at SNCF.

The railway-ecosystem & climate change: a national plan for adapting to climate change was adopted on 25^th July 2011, and Meteo France's future scenarios (+2°C in 2030, +4°C in 2050) have also been studied, showing vulnerability to an increase in extreme weather phenomena (cold, canicule, storm, flooding...)

All five activities of SNCF are concerned: infrastructures, trains, stations, electric systems & communications. Induced effects of climate change could be higher urban congestion, or the development of alternative work organisation (telework). This raises the question of the relevance of our ways of life: air-conditioning (that raises CO2 emissions), pedestrian fluctuating congestion, “vegetalised” train stations, shaded areas, new design?

However, during the 1999 storm in Bordeaux, 170km/h winds blew, but the station's glass canopy held out! In Besancon, the semi-subterranean station allows a better landscape integration, plus a better resistance to strong winds & extreme colds. For example, last winter, when it was -10°C outside, it was +17°C inside!

The Programme Gare Versailles Chantiers is made of 4 successive work packages:

- measurements: 110 sensors have been displayed, in order to analyse consumptions of gas & electricity, temperatures, humidity, light (per zone, per usage, per time period)

- modeling (see next speaker)

- anticipation: split into large functionalities (energy, intermodality, urbanism)

- control & validation

Regarding users' involvement in the design of multimodal hub projects, site committees have been established, in order to coordinate the different stakeholders (transport and then energy).

2^nd speaker : Joëlle Gitton – modelisation of passenger fluctuations and electricity consumption

She talks about the challenge to design, test and operate the energy models. One must identify the best ways to improve the whole (smartgrids => flexibility of production & consumption). In order to do so, several management models are possible.

- The Knowledge Model: detailed physical analysis, in which the outputs are (1) the evolution of needs and therefore the scaling of the equipment, (2) the analysis of consumption modes, (3) the identification of possible improvements, all the while maintaining security constraints and a reasonably acceptable level of service;

- The Black Box Model: identification through experience;

- The Grey Box Model: a mix of the 2 previous methods, resulting in the same outputs.

The gap between modelled & measured data is quite important before calibration of the models, but the calibrated models tend to be a close match with measured values. Models show that maximum power is called on only one percent of the time. This means production and storage of energy must be re-thought (reload electric vehicles or micro-cogeneration). And also that consumption must be re-thought (lighting, stop & go mechanic stairs and so on)

Where can we store energy? In Japan, they work on storing it inside the train, in batteries, but it can also be stored outside the train, in substations. The question is how and when do we want to use the energy that has been stored? We must be able to spread the injection of electricity to the electric grid, but at what cost, and for what environmental impact? Because batteries hold pollutants... this is a matter of technico-economic mediation.

Forecasting: (1) identify sources of energy savings and (2) identify new usages

3^rd speaker : Guillaume Foggia – integration of train stations into smartgrids

The integration of train stations into smartgrids raises the question of valorisation, which means:

(1)   optimisation of the station's energy bill, and

(2)   integration at the scale of the district (neighbourhood)

SmartGrid = generation => transmission => distribution => end-user consumer

Until recently, the system of electricity production was centralised. Now, with a better dispatch of energy, new functions appear - which means better producing/consuming, at the best time. A social/societal benefit is expected in terms of: decreasing CO2 emissions plus the inter-operability of the different solutions, plus local integration (smaller mesh).

There are already several on-going projects for smartgrid integration in France:

- ReFlexE in PACA region, project funded by ADEME (commercial integration)

Consumptions & flexibilities are aggregated in order to offer power reserves to the network operator (RTE), through a diffuse erasure that avoids of use of peak power plants (expensive and pollutant)

- NICE GRID at La Carros, which is an electric peninsula

Photo-voltaic integration for the distribution network operator (ErDF) in order to avoid network congestion

Train stations face operational & safety constraints.

Train stations will become energetic hubs; that means

(1)   store electricity through electric vehicles loading systems and

(2)   recover energy during train braking phases.

Train stations become Virtual Power Plants, to valorise asset flexibility.

Aggregation platform: one station alone does not reach sufficient quantities => proliferation is needed

There are sources of flexibility to re-use the aggregated production flexibilities. Besides, there are other projects focusing on consumption flexibility

Then there comes the question of governance: producers? consumers? local administration ?

4^th speaker :  Amélie Coulbaut-Lazzarini – what do social sciences bring to smartgrids set-up ?

Smartgrid projects are pretty recent: most were launched in 2010, in the US Brazil, China, India, South-Africa, Australia and Europe. Twenty smartgrid projects have been initiated in France, among which only six include a social sciences approach.

It aims at studying the behavior of the different stakeholders, in order to know if the technology fits the situation, and then be able to determine the conditions for implementing the project, as it will affect the different stakeholders: residents, owners, maintenance services, local administrations...

The environment must be taken into account in its broader meaning: physical (city? natural park? etc), social (population, income, etc), political and economic. Different studies must then be led: articles, return on experiences, conferences, etc.

Here, the methodology is plural, as it integrates surveys, semi-structured interviews, ethnographic studies, and an in-depth study of the local & institutional context, as we are at the interface of technical & social issues:

- highlighting all aspects related to human factors,

- identifying potential brakes & leverages,

- proposing solutions to match the technology with the sociological context.

There is no feedback, yet, on sociological data, since they are being analysed by Alstom. These require 3-to-5 years of studies, so the data are not available yet.