Load Shedding in Public Buildings: Contributing to the Energy Transition

The entire public building stock in France accounts for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions and 50% of final energy consumption in the tertiary sector. It represents a major challenge for energy transition policy.

As such, it is a prime target for energy conservation measures. The objective is clear: consume less. Ambitious targets have been set—reducing energy consumption in government buildings by 40% by 2030 and 60% by 2050. Significant funding has been allocated, including €4 billion in loans through the recovery plan and the major investment plan.

However, at a time when energy bills are placing an increasing burden on budgets, it is important for property owners and tenants to also focus on consuming better. Thanks to their thermal inertia and controllability, buildings offer flexibility in energy consumption that can be leveraged. This strategy is a win-win: it reduces greenhouse gas emissions, supports the electricity grid during periods of stress, and generates financial gains that can partially offset rising energy costs.

Despite this potential, the tertiary sector—particularly the public sector—has been slow to invest in this area. This is partly due to the specific challenges faced by the real estate sector, which are more complex than those in the industrial sector. Yet these obstacles can be overcome through effective governance, smart investment strategies, and strategic management.

Several mechanisms promote energy flexibility and load-shedding capabilities. Organizations can contribute in terms of capacity and/or volume:

• Maximizing capacity involves allowing the grid operator to interrupt electricity consumption under certain conditions (e.g., notice periods, duration, and scope of interruption). This capacity acts as a “virtual power plant” that helps RTE (France’s transmission system operator) maintain the supply-demand balance. Various mechanisms support this:
• The capacity market, where supply and demand for capacity continuously interact.
• RTE’s load-shedding tender, which complements the capacity market and mobilized 2,922 MW in 2024 (an 8% increase over 2023), with a remuneration of €65k/MW (€85k for more committed sites).
• RTE’s calls for fast and complementary reserves, which require a response within 9, 13, or 30 minutes.
• Interruptibility mechanisms and system services, involving nearly instantaneous and automated load shedding.

These interruption capacities are financially rewarded based on a commitment to reduce load upon request, with annual remuneration per MW.

• Volume-based remuneration is also possible. When load shedding is actually triggered, the volume of energy saved (in MWh) is compensated as if it were energy production. Participants who prefer not to commit capacity can choose to offer volumes only—though this option is typically less profitable.

So why is load shedding still underutilized in the tertiary sector?

The obstacles are real:

• Unlike industry, energy consumption in the tertiary sector is dispersed across many sites. This leads to a fragmented view of potential gains and diffused decision-making. Individual sites often lack incentives or resources to act, and central management often lacks an aggregated overview—so the issue is either ignored or decisions are postponed.

• On the ground, it can be difficult to identify what exactly should be turned off. In industry, switching off a process results in immediate, measurable consumption drops. In buildings, interrupting heating for 15 minutes may have negligible or hard-to-detect effects due to overlapping consumption patterns.

Yet solutions exist:

• The diffuse nature of potential gains can be addressed by managing load shedding at the scale of the entire building stock, either internally or via third-party operators specializing in demand response.

• Measurement challenges are increasingly easy to solve with digital tools. Instrumentation costs should be evaluated in light of potential returns.

The true barrier is likely a lack of information. Awareness in the tertiary sector remains low. The environmental, grid, and financial benefits of load shedding must be better communicated and assessed. It should be integrated into broader energy consumption strategies. Load shedding is a vital lever for the energy transition. With the right approach, it can become a central component of energy strategy—particularly for public-sector players.