Storengy and Schneider Electric sign a partnership agreement

Schneider Electric, world leader in the field of digital transformation of energy management and automation, designated most sustainable business in the world by the Corporate Knights Global 100 index in January 2021, and Storengy, a subsidiary of ENGIE, one of the world leaders in underground natural gas storage and key player in the development of renewable gases, are working together to achieve the zero-carbon transition and announce a partnership to offer underground hydrogen storage solutions.

A partnership to accelerate decarbonisation

By signing this partnership, Storengy and Schneider Electric pool their fields of expertise at the service of the decarbonisation of businesses. “Schneider Electric is supporting the transition towards a more digital and electric world to take up the challenges brought about by the climate crisis. Our partnership with Storengy fits into this strategy to accelerate the accomplishment of our direct and indirect clients’ carbon neutrality objectives”, said Marc Fromager, Director of Industrial Automation & End Users at Schneider Electric France.

This partnership is initiated by a first project named HyPSTER* at the Etrez storage site (in the department of Ain). The solution will be powered by local renewable energy (photovoltaic, hydraulic) to produce renewable hydrogen. This project aims to install a demonstrator for underground hydrogen storage in a salt cavern. It will also be a mean to validate the technical and economic reproducibility of the process at other sites in Europe.

An alliance between two leaders of the French energy sector

To support this zero-carbon solution, Schneider Electric will provide its expertise in the fields of automation solutions, process instrumentation, gas analysis and energy distribution solutions to Storengy.

Together, both companies will design a Power Systems and Process Automation solution dedicated to underground hydrogen storage. Indeed, the solutions implemented require manufacturer’s skills, both for energy management as for process steering. Thus, Schneider Electric shall design packages which will be reproducible to other facilities.

"Storengy salutes this agreement with Schneider Electric, which is a great opportunity to pursue common research and development projects in order to offer concrete, innovative and replicable solutions to our clients. In a carbon-neutral world, underground hydrogen storage will play an essential role to provide resiliency and flexibility to the energy system”, specifies Camille Bonenfant-Jeanneney, Storengy C.E.O.

* Hydrogen Pilot Storage for large Ecosystem Replication

About the HyPSTER project

HyPSTER is the first large-scale green hydrogen storage project in salt caverns supported by the European Union. This project with a total budget 13 million euros has been granted a 5-million euro subvention by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH 2 JU). In addition to Storengy, 6 other European partners are involved:  ARMINES/Polytechniques, Inovyn, Element Energy, ESK, Ineris and chemical-environmental competitive cluster AXELERA.

For further information about the project and its partners, please visit the website: https://hypster-project.eu/

This project has received funding from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 101006751. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and Hydrogen Europe and Hydrogen Europe Research.

About Storengy

Storengy, an ENGIE subsidiary, is one of the world leaders in underground natural gas storage. Drawing on 70 years of experience, Storengy designs, develops and operates storage facilities and offers its customers innovative products. The company owns 21 natural gas storage sites with a total capacity of 136 TWh in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Storengy is also a key player in renewable gases (biomethane, hydrogen, synthetic gas) and geothermal energy (power generation and heat/cold production). In the hydrogen sector, Storengy is a member of France Hydrogéne (formerly AFHYPAC), as well as the association Hydrogen Europe.

About Schneider Electric

Schneider's purpose is to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all.  Our ambition is: Life is On.

Our mission is to be our clients’ digital partner for sustainability and efficiency.

We drive digital transformation by integrating world-leading energy technologies and automation processes. We offer end-point to cloud connecting products, controls, software and services, across the entire lifecycle, enabling integrated company management, for homes, buildings, data centres, infrastructure and industries.

We are the most local of global companies. We are advocates of open standards and partnership ecosystems that are passionate about our shared Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values. www.se.com

Media contacts:

Schneider Electric Media Relations – Andrée Clar, andree.clar@se.com – +33 (0)6 85 81 08 78
Storengy Media Relations – monet-storengy@monet-rp.com