The principal elements of the call for tenders

Known as "AOLT” in French, this call for tenders is destined for new capacities. It is held four years ahead of each delivery year by the ministry in charge of energy if there has been a benefit for social welfare. Aim: to provide visibility and a stable price to facilitate new investments.

A guaranteed price is set at the end of each call for tenders. Candidates submitting tenders below the guaranteed price are selected and awarded a contract for difference which ensures a stable remuneration equal to the guaranteed price, for a period of 7 years. Thus, during the period covered by the call for tenders, if the guaranteed price is higher than the market-clearing price, the successful bidder will get the difference. If not, it will need to pay the difference.

Answering a call for tenders

The call for tenders is reserved for new generation and demand response capacities.

Eligible generation capacity : generation facilities located in metropolitan France…

• not benefiting from any support mechanisms,
• not subject to any request for certification, or any connection agreement signed prior to the winners being designated,
• Generation capacity with a new operating permit due to an increase of at least 20% in its installed power or a change of primary energy source.

Eligible load reduction : consumption site located in metropolitan France…

• having not benefited from remuneration for load reductions on market mechanisms prior to 29 December 2018 or for which the contract power has increased by a least 20% since the last participation before this date,
• having not received more than six years of remuneration for a demand response call for tenders and call for tenders for new capacities,
• not benefiting from a support mechanism (demand response call for tenders, NEBEF compensation payment) or any other demand response call for tenders for a same year,
• candidate through a single load reduction capacity project.

No call for tenders is in progress. The organization of the next call for tenders (period 2024-2030 and following) requires :

• the approval of an implementation plan by the European Commission (procedure planned for second semester 2020);
• the existence of a need for new capacity over the period covered by the call for tenders.

Timetable of the call for tenders

Each call for tenders takes place 4 years ahead of the delivery period and is open over a period of 6 months.

The transitional provisions were applied in 2019 in order to hold the calls for tenders for which the realisation period starts in the 4 following years. The selection of bids was done in chronological order of the realisation periods:

• 2020 – 2026
• 2021 – 2027
• 2022 – 2028
• 2023 – 2029

The report on the selection of offers for these calls for tenders is available below.

To date, no date has been set for the organization of calls for tenders for the 2024-2030 and subsequent security periods.

Commitments under the call for tenders

Contracting through the call for tenders for new capacities is binding in the same way as the capacity mechanism. Moreover, you undertake to provide your capacity during peak periods PP2 reported in the context of the capacity mechanism.

Find out more

View the page on the capacity mechanism.

Documentation

• Decree no. 2018-997 of 15 November 2018 on the capacity obligation mechanism
• Public version of the RTE supporting document - administered demand curves
• AOLT specifications 2020-2026
• AOLT contract 2020 - 2026
• AOLT specifications 2021-2027
• AOLT contract 2021 - 2027
• AOLT specifications 2022-2028
• AOLT contract 2022 - 2028
• AOLT specifications 2023-2029
• AOLT contract 2023 - 2029
• Report on offers selection in the context of call for tenders organized in 2019

Contact

For any additional information, please contact your account manager or marketservices@rte-france.com.