EDSO for Smart Grids welcomes new members and new EC communication on Smart Grids
Brussels, June 1st 2011 – During its Board of Directors meeting in Brussels the 31 May, EDSO for Smart Grids was pleased to welcome PPC SA from Greece, Stromnetz Steiermark GmbH from Austria and Enea Operator sp. z o.o. from Poland as new members. Mr. Per-Olof Granström was officially appointed Secretary General of EDSO for Smart Grids.
EDSO for Smart Grids welcomes the recently issued EC Communication “Smart Grids: from Innovation to Deployment”. Besides their basic role as network providers DSOs have a natural role as market facilitators; enabling active demand, distributed generation, charging of Electric Vehicles, local balancing and information exchange. EDSO for Smart Grids also strongly support the introduction of regulatory incentives for investments as necessary drivers toward smart grids economic viability and deployment. “New technologies need to be tested to establish cost-effective solutions that can work under real-life working conditions, characteristics of new technologies once integrated into the system, different technology priorities due to local conditions, customer reaction and possible challenges and barriers to overcome. For this, further projects and European financing is urgent” commented the Chairman of the EDSO for Smart Grids Board of Directors, Livio Gallo.
As regards policy, EDSO for Smart Grids invites the European Commission to pursue a balanced approach to foster the development of a transparent and open market without creating distortions that could endanger the development of smart grids in the long-term perspective. “With the scope to better investigate the evolving role of the DSO in the smart grids environment EDSO for Smart Grids is launching working groups leveraging on the knowledge of its members to explore the best available solutions for controlling/dispatching distributed generation, application of storage devices, operating recharging infrastructure for electric vehicles, gathering and managing smart metering data and enabling active demand and customer participation” commented the Secretary General of EDSO for Smart Grids, Per-Olof Granström.
EDSO for Smart Grids, representing 25 leading Distribution System Operators in 16 countries in the EU – amounting to approx. 134 million points of supply, will in close cooperation with the European Commission and the European electricity industry monitor and contribute to moving Smart Grids from vision to reality.
