Facing growing challenges related to decarbonization, competitiveness and energy resilience, industrial companies are being called upon to rethink their heat production. Today, more than two-thirds of industrial energy demand in Europe concerns heat production. Yet nearly 75% of this heat is still generated from fossil fuels. In this context of energy transition, Pierre Cheyron, Vice-President for Marketing and Industrial Development at ENGIE, explains how the electrification of industrial thermal uses— combined with increased flexibility—has emerged as a strategic response to decarbonization, competitiveness and resilience challenges.
Contributing to the Flexibility of the French Power System While Accelerating Industrial Decarbonization
In an uncertain geopolitical environment, France benefits from a highly decarbonized electricity mix. This offers a major lever for accelerating industrial decarbonization. By mobilizing usage flexibility, industrial players contribute to the stability of the power system while enhancing local, competitive and low-carbon energy, thus strengthening energy security and sovereignty.
Industrial electrical flexibility therefore plays a strategic role. By adjusting their consumption (process control, load shedding, storage, smart electrification), industrial operators actively support grid stability while maximizing the value of electricity that is already very low in CO₂ emissions in France. This approach enables the combination of economic performance, system resilience and decarbonization trajectories.
This dynamic opens strong prospects for decarbonizing industrial heat, which represents a significant share of the industry’s CO₂ emissions. Electrifying thermal uses—particularly through electric boilers—makes it possible to progressively replace fossil-fuel boilers with low-carbon, controllable and competitive heat. Thanks to their highly responsive technology, electric boilers can also effectively support grid balancing services when requested by the system operator.
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Scaling Up the Use of Electric Boilers
The shift toward electrification is already well understood across the industrial sector. Regardless of activity type, these challenges are now embedded in decarbonization roadmaps. This is what a study conducted by EDF and L’Usine Nouvelle, in spring 2025 explains. Moreover, 80% of industrial thermal uses will be technically electrifiable by 2035, with the capability to meet all temperature levels required for various industrial processes. Using electric boilers—integrated within a hybrid energy mix combining gas and electricity— appears to be a highly relevant solution for industrial heat production. This approach reconciles security of supply, service continuity and a progressive decarbonization pathway, without compromising the reliability of industrial processes.
Electric boilers stand out for their ease of installation and operation. Unlike equipment running exclusively on fossil fuels, they do not require chimneys or fuel storage, thus limiting infrastructure investment. Maintenance is also simplified due to the absence of combustion systems and burners, improving plant availability.
Beyond these advantages, electric boilers deliver excellent production efficiency, making them highly effective energy-performance assets. When combined with smart control and flexibility mechanisms, they help optimize operating costs while significantly reducing the carbon footprint of the heat produced.
Hybridizing the Energy Mix to Support Grid Flexibility
The main added value of electric boilers lies in their ability to integrate seamlessly into hybrid systems combining gas boilers or heat pumps.
Integrated alongside existing gas boilers, e-boilers help secure continuous heat supply. Gas retains its role as a backup and power guarantor. Electricity is used preferentially when conditions are favorable, particularly during periods of competitive prices. This complementarity strengthens the energy resilience of industrial sites.
This approach represents a significant trend in decarbonization. It can also be integrated into utility-production systems already in place for many industrial actors in France. Pairing electricity and gas facilitates a reliable and cost-effective decarbonization transition for a large number of industrial companies.
However, the cost of electricity—indexed to gas prices—currently limits electrification by failing to provide long-term price stability. To address this volatility, it is pertinent to leverage the modularity and high responsiveness of electric boilers, which enable optimization of participation in flexibility markets. Industrial facilities can thus contribute to grid balancing, particularly through secondary reserve services (automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve – aFRR).
ENGIE’s Role
To ensure the viability, security and economic sustainability of this hybrid gas-electric energy mix, ENGIE’s support plays a central role.
ENGIE provides dynamic operation of installations, managing grid requests through activation or deactivation of the electric boiler, while guaranteeing continuous heat availability thanks to the gas boiler. This ensures process continuity regardless of grid constraints or market signals.
Beyond operational control, ENGIE offers contractual commitments on heat supply, combining financing, operations, availability, energy performance and decarbonization trajectory.
ENGIE commits to delivering low-carbon heat at a controlled cost, competitive with the fossil-fuel heat currently used on site, and without additional cost for the industrial operator compared with their baseline situation. This approach reconciles energy transition and industrial competitiveness without compromising existing economic balances. All indicators are green for building a high-performance, low-carbon and competitive energy solution.
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