Eighteen students from Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Master’s in Energy Management and Marketing traveled to Morocco as part of the Green Morocco project. The goal of the trip was to evaluate the country’s energy transition strategy for partner companies, including Schneider Electric, which funded the trip.
Last April, 18 students earning double degrees as engineers (Grenoble INP) and sales managers (GEM) spent ten days in Morocco in order to explore eight locations that illustrate the country’s evolution in terms of renewable energies.
Morocco is Africa’s leading pioneer in terms of the energy transition. The country aims to reach 52% renewable energy by 2030. It’s the third producer of wind energy in Africa and the Middle East. And 26% of the country’s hydroelectric energy is dedicated to energy storage (STEP).
The Green Morocco trip enabled students to visit hydroelectric power stations, wind turbine stations, water treatment plants and a solar energy plant in Ouarzazate, which aims to become the world’s largest solar energy plant with a capacity of 500MW.
What was the impact of Green Morocco?
The students focused on renewable energies and smart grids in Morocco in order to review the current situation, possible opportunities, perspectives, openness, monopolies, etc. This allowed them to suggest new possibilities for Schneider Electric, which has been present in the country for 65 years.
In order to better anticipate the electric sector in Morocco, the company decided to focus on several of the students’ suggestions and themes related to energy policy, policy-making, public funding and regulations:
- Understanding the current state of regulations for transportation and distribution networks; expected movement by various actors; needs in terms of investment; new market opportunities
- Changes to be expected in balancing the network; needs and preferences in terms of resources and flexibility; focusing on the need for modulation
- The evolution of local distribution channels, in particular in terms of economic models and openness to new actors; challenges tied to Distributed Energy Resources: the use of solar panels and electrical vehicles for local authorities
- National and local policy for auto-production and consumption of individual and collective solar power; an overview of the advantages and disadvantages associated with such initiatives
- National and local governmental interests in microgrids for rural areas
The students are currently writing their report which will be made available to Schneider Electric by end of July.
Schneider Electric: why support Green Morocco?
The Green Morocco trip was funded by Schneider Electric. Why?
“The profiles of students in this advanced master’s are of strategic interest for Schneider Electric because they combine engineering and business knowledge while learning in a work/study program,” explains Anissa Deal, head of HR at Schneider Electric France. The vast majority of students in the program have solid scientific backgrounds. During the advanced master’s, they learn business expertise from GEM and specific energy-related knowledge from Grenoble INP.
As a premium partner, Schneider Electric participated in some recruitment committees and helped co-construct the program with Grenoble INP. “Schneider Electric provides guidance for the program during the yearly scientific committee meeting held at GEM with the program’s professors and researchers. It’s a way for us to support education while encouraging it to evolve in a direction that meets our changing needs at Schneider Electric. Several classes are taught by the group’s employees (marketing director for electric utilities, marketing director for research programs on energy…),” adds Anissa.
“For students that have work/study contracts with us (5 this past year), Schneider Electric helps create their job mission. For example, one participant’s mission was to create marketing and diffusion strategies to help Schneider Solar position itself as an influencer,” says Anissa.
To learn more about opportunities for partnerships with Grenoble Ecole de Management
