Saft inaugurates EnerShift in Bordeaux: a pilot energy storage project for industrial sites
Saft inaugurates its EnerShift facility on its industrial site in Bordeaux.
This new solution enables sites to reduce their electricity bill as well as their carbon footprint.
EnerShift also helps secure the grid’s electricity supply through its curtailment capacity and flexibiity.
Bordeaux, September 24, 2025 - Saft, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies and a major player in high-tech industrial batteries and energy storage, today inaugurated its EnerShift project - an energy storage system for industrial sites - on its Bordeaux site. The inauguration was attended by Pierre Humic, mayor of Bordeaux, Alain Rousset, President of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, Alain Cazabonne, Senator of Gironde, Étienne Guyot, Prefect of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, Isabelle Patrier, Director of TotalEnergies France and Cédric Duclos, CEO of Saft.
EnerShift: a pilot project for the industry of the future
With its EnerShift pilot project, Saft has developed a 9 MWh energy storage system that uses its Li-ion I-Shift battery and can power its entire Bordeaux industrial site for 4 hours, along with its rail and air battery production line and its research and development activity.
EnerShift connects to the electricity grid and aims to strengthen the site’s energy resilience by optimizing consumption management. This system enables electricity to be stored when renewable energy stores are abundant, particularly during periods of peak production of wind and solar farms, to be used later when demand is high. Through this approach, EnerShift helps lower the electricity grid’s load while significantly reducing the carbon footprint and electricity bill for the Bordeaux site.
A reproducible model
Buoyed by its success in Bordeaux, Saft plans to deploy EnerShift to other industrial sites in France and overseas. The first facilities are already slated to open in the United States and Czech Republic in 2026.
The Saft site in Bordeaux, which hosts production lines for rail and air batteries as well as the group’s largest research center in the world, is also the development site for the EnerShift system. The system comprises three 20-foot I-Shift batteries, each with capacity of 3 MWh, a converter and a 10-foot control container, occupying an area the size of a tennis court. The model is designed to be replicable, and could also prove a benefit for a number of industrial sites throughout the world, by offering a concrete solution for optimizing their energy consumption and reducing their carbon footprint.
Saft, a pioneer in innovation for over a century, today presents a new renewable energy storage solution for industry players in France. This technological breakthrough embodies Saft’s commitment to a more sustainable and efficient energy, while illustrating its ability to innovate in the electro-chemical sector, systems, software and services. Innovation is at the heart of our mission.
Measurable benefits
Given the fluctuation in electricity prices, heightened by geopolitical tensions, EnerShift provides an innovative solution to control costs and secure energy supply for industrial sites. On the Bordeaux site, the facility supplies up to 100% of the plant’s energy needs for four hours, and produces very significant cost savings.
A tool for energy flexibility
EnerShift also contributes to the security of supply in France through its participation in the *MECAPA capacity market. Managed by RTE, this mechanism manages curtailment (or consumption reductions) during winter peak periods. This ability to modulate the energy from the electricity grid at any time means that we can consider other uses in the future, such as for example supplying frequency regulation services or contributing to local flexibility markets.
*MECAPA: The capacity mechanism aims to provide security of the electricity supply in France during peak periods in the winter. It requires committed parties to cover consumption during peak hours and the certification and remuneration of production and curtailment capacities.
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About Saft
Saft is a company specialized in advanced-technology batteries for industry: from design and development to production, tailoring and service provision. For more than 100 years, Saft has provided batteries and systems with ever-increasing lifespans for critical applications such as security uses, back-up powers solutions and propulsion. Our innovative, safe, and reliable technology offers outstanding performance on land, at sea, and in the air as well as in space.
Saft powers industrial and manufacturing sectors as well as connected smart cities, while providing back-up power sources in remote and inhospitable environments, such as the Arctic Circle and the Sahara Desert. Saft is wholly owned by TotalEnergies, a multi-energy company that produces and sells energy in all its forms throughout the world, including oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gas, renewable energies and electricity.
We energize the world. www.saft.com
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Press contacts
Saft
Belén d’Alexis, External Communications Manager
Tel. : +33 1 58 63 16 60, e-mail : belen.dalexis@saft.com
Definition Agency
Andrew Bartlett, Tel. : +44 79 47 00 79 96, e-mail: andrew.bartlett@thisisdefinition.com