It is responsible for the operation, maintenance and development of the French high-voltage transmission system, which at approximately 100,000 kilometres (62,000 mi), is Europe's largest.

[1][2] RTE is a société anonyme headquartered in Paris and mostly owned by the French state through Électricité de France and Caisse des dépôts et consignations.

[4] The directive required France to liberalise its electricity market by unbundling its generation and transmission activities, which until then had been fully controlled by EdF.

CRE's duties in this regard include ensuring RTE facilitates access to its network, and to survey and regulate the electricity market while opening it up to competition.

France is the largest exporter of electricity in Europe,[4] and the country is linked via a total of 44 high voltage interconnections[5] to Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom, the last of which by means of an HVDC submarine power cable.