How digitally mature are Europe’s DSOs?

Digitalisation is proving a must-have tool with ecosystem-wide benefits for Europe’s DSOs but untapped potential remains, Eurelectric reports.

In a new assessment conducted with Accenture, the DSOs are found to reflect a substantial spread in digital maturity, which is strongly DSO-dependent but not related to their size.

The analysis is based on data from a sample of 31 DSOs that are considered representative, having more than 80 million customers in 21 countries amounting to almost one-third of the EU customer base. The study considers digitalisation in the four core DSO capabilities – ‘Build’, i.e. expanding the grid, ‘Operate’, i.e. using the grid to its full potential, ‘Maintain’, i.e. generating asset insights, and ‘Data-driven’, i.e. aggregating and using data from across the system.

Of these the ‘data driven’ capability shows the highest level of maturity, especially in the cybersecurity space and ‘build’ shows the lowest as that least reliant on digital technology, while both ‘operate’ and maintain’ show moderate levels.

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It also was found that DSOs with a higher proportion of renewables in the energy mix demonstrate higher maturity across all capabilities, due to the increased complexity of their operations.

Another finding is that DSOs have put customers at the centre of their current digital priorities along with reliability of services.

However, over half cited encountering regulatory hurdles with respect to harnessing the potential of smart meters and a third cited capex investment limits as a challenge.

“There are many opportunities today to digitalise grid build-out, operations and maintenance, but to fully leverage them, grid operators must be supported by clear regulation to make their business go digital,” Kristian Ruby, Secretary General of Eurelectric, commented on the study, Wired for tomorrow.

All the DSOs acknowledged the business potential of integrating OT data in IT systems but have faced implementation issues.

Likewise, a balanced approach is needed between large-scale build out and flexibility to increase capacity, but both capabilities underuse digital.

To address the regulation challenge Eurelectric recommends national regulators should encourage digitalisation investments by ensuring appropriate compensation for DSOs.

In parallel, the new EU legislation introduced under the twin green and digital transitions should be coherently implemented across sectors, avoiding overlaps and inconsistencies.

The lack of skilled talent, cited by more than half of the utilities, also needs to be addressed, with options including formalising education, developing skills initiatives and introducing certification recognised EU-wide.