Activity Report 2012 - Eurelectric

ThE ChanGInG
DIsTRIbUTIon
bUsInEss:
Dsos as market
facilitators within
the smart grid
environment
EURELECTRIC is developing a vision for the future distribution business, in line
with the EU’s shifting focus from the transmission to the distribution level. This
includes setting the appropriate regulatory framework and standards, developing
market models, and testing new solutions through demonstration projects.
In this context, EURELECTRIC is striving to set a European framework that will
allow distribution system operators (Dsos) across Europe to cope with the new
challenges for their business models and operations.
The Energy Efficiency Directive adopted this year
goes some way towards preparing the ground for
a regulatory framework that allows the intelligent
integration of demand and generation. Article 15
of the Directive says that grid operators should
be incentivised to make available system services
for users. This is in line with a EURELECTRIC
paper published last year, in which we called on
regulators to adjust the regulatory framework to
foster smart investments and allow DSOs to operate
a more complex system.
30 eurelectric activity report 2012
In order to strengthen DSOs in this discussion EURELECTRIC
helped the European Commission’s Task Force Smart
Grids to develop a “DSO as market facilitator” market
model which EURELECTRIC presented at the Citizens’ Energy
Forum in London (see p. 34-35). However, the Commission’s
Internal Energy Market (IEM) Communication, published
in november, called for “reconsidering the role of
DSOs”, mentioning the role of third parties (like the ICT
industry) “in the future development of local distribution
grids.” This discussion affects the DSO business model
significantly and will continue next year.