Access to clean electricity for all Europeans at all times – European grid operators ready to take up the challenge
Following the success for the sixth year in a row of their joint conference on innovation in electricity grids, INNOGRID2020+, the association for electricity distribution system operators, EDSO for Smart Grids, and the European network of transmission system operators for electricity, ENTSO-E, commit to join forces on speeding up the smartening of the electricity system.
“This week at INNOGRID2020+, we showed it was technically possible to have neighbours save money and cut emissions by trading electricity produced from their solar panels with one another. But how do we go from pilot projects to large scale deployment?” asks Laurent Schmitt, ENTSO-E Secretary General.
“This is where digitalisation kicks in. By connecting the dots, digitalisation facilitates integration between systems and between the customer and the system. So, we can leverage on European countries’ complementarity and on the exponential growth of distributed generation and flexibility”, continues Laurent Schmitt.
For Roberto Zangrandi, EDSO for Smart Grids’ Secretary General, “Electricity networks are the real backbone of a digital, smarter energy system. They are the key enablers of all this, as flexibility will be needed at all levels: both transmission and distribution, and especially customers’. Customers are the ones that will benefit the most, by being able to use their generation and their flexibility when and where it creates the most value. ”
He adds that, “if digitalisation is done in an interoperable way across Europe – with data flows communicating where it is needed, freely and securely, this will boost competition, business opportunities, cost-efficiency and renewables’ integration”.
EDSO for Smart Grids and ENTSO-E are insisting on their will to act together as ‘innovation incubators’ for the take-off of Europe’s next electricity system and markets. Consumer empowerment, active system and data management will be high on their agenda and they will intensify their cooperation on these with other European DSO associations and all involved stakeholders.
