The substation can be ready and the site still dark: the grid operator's schedule is independent of yours. Here are the steps, what stretches them, what speeds them up, and where our role ends.
The costliest mistake on a substation project: believing there is only one lead time, the equipment's. In reality two schedules run in parallel: yours (studies, order, manufacturing, civil works) and the grid operator's (processing the request, network works, energisation). They do not start at the same moment and do not depend on the same actors. A delivered substation waiting months for its energy is almost always the second schedule launched too late.
The path follows a constant logic, whatever the procedural details (the exact terms and applicable lead times depend on the texts in force and on the operator, to be confirmed with Enedis or your local DSO):
1 · Qualify the need. Requested connection power, drawing, injecting, or both. That figure decides whether you stay in LV or move to MV, and it conditions everything else. 2 · File the connection request. It opens the DSO's assessment: the starting gun of the network schedule. The earlier it goes in, the smoother the project. 3 · Receive and accept the connection proposal. It fixes the delivery point, the works on the DSO's side, the financial contribution and the technical conditions. 4 · Build your side. A delivery substation compliant with NF C 13-100, civil works, cabling: that is where we come in. 5 · Verification and energisation. Conformity attestation, checks, then commissioning by the DSO.
A consuming site (industry, data center, charging hub) requests a drawing connection. A solar or wind plant requests an injecting one. A site with storage or self-consumption does both, and that case must be announced from the start: it changes the substation design, the metering, the protections, and sometimes the transformer itself (genuinely bidirectional flow; see battery storage).
What stretches it: a request filed after the equipment order; a power figure that changes mid-study (it can restart the assessment); a disputed delivery point; an incomplete file bouncing back and forth. What speeds it up: filing early, even on a provisional figure; having the study led by a design office fluent in the DSO's rulebook; and running the civil works in parallel with manufacturing rather than after it.
General walkthrough of the French MV connection logic; exact procedures and lead times follow the texts in force and your operator's rules, confirmed case by case.
As early as possible, even on a provisional power figure: it is what starts the grid operator's schedule. A finished substation waiting months for energy is almost always a request filed too late.
You, or your design office acting for you: the DSO contracts with the applicant, not with the equipment supplier. We supply the substation and the documentation that feeds your file, and we align our delivery on your target energisation date.
Everything downstream: substation design, metering, protections, sometimes the transformer itself (genuinely bidirectional flow). Announce consumption plus injection from the first exchange; it must not arrive mid-study.
A request filed after the equipment order, a power figure changed mid-study (it can restart the assessment), a disputed delivery point, or an incomplete file bouncing back and forth.