Monitoring and support of developments in regulation, policy and standards

This report gives an overview of the latest developments in the European regulatory framework around energy and climate goals, electricity networks, smart grids, data protection and digitalisation based on literature study of the relevant regulatory documents.

The regulatory framework will change the planning and operation of the DSO in the future, and it will have an impact on the UNITED‐GRID tool‐box and business models that will be further validated in real‐life demonstration sites in the Netherlands, France and Sweden. Therefore the document focuses in more detail on specific regulatory issues that the DSOs from the different countries in the project have encountered.

The research paper ‘A study of the European regulatory framework for smart grid solutions in future distribution systems’ (presented at the CIRED 2020 Berlin Workshop) identifies in more detail 5 priority barriers. The results show that ambitious decarbonisation targets and changing expectations on the distribution system operators’ role in the energy system would require a more flexible and efficient network management. However, binding income frameworks, lacking incentives for innovation and regulatory uncertainties hinder modernization in distribution systems.

It can be concluded that these concerns increase the risks for distribution system operators and have to be considered by research projects and developers of smart grid solutions in order to implement and achieve market uptake of the developed solutions within the next five to ten years.