EDSO held its first Board of Directors' meeting of the year in Lisbon on March 20th 2014. The group of CEOs and high-level representatives elected a new Board of Directors. Secretary General Per-Olof Granström's announced his departure from the association later in the year and key policy issues for the DSO were discussed. The meeting was followed by a visit to EDP Distribuçao's InovCity Évora and Inovgrid project, a flagship smart city demonstration project.

EDSO welcomed its newest member, Vattenfall Stromnetz Berlin, this week as well as the Horizon 2020 ENERGY work programme 2014-2015 and first ENERGY calls. EDSO was pleased to see the focus of many calls on the development of smart electricity systems. Many of the calls will help DSOs to develop ways to manage the urgent requirements resulting from EU energy policies: grid development, system integration, demand response, consumer engagement and energy storage.

Today, the ITRE committee of the European Parliament adopted its report on the draft regulation on measures to reduce the cost of deploying high-speed electronic communications networks. The committee voted to change the legal instrument from a Regulation to a Directive. Rapporteur Edit Herczog (S&D) was given a mandate to start informal negotiations with the Council of the European Union. CEDEC and EDSO for Smart Grids welcome this next step, but underline the importance of not compromising safety, security and energy network integrity.

EDSO is pleased to see the European Commission’s special action plan for demand response which accompanied today’s guidelines for member states on state intervention in electricity markets. Enabling consumers to alter their energy consumption in response to market signals and time-of-use tariffs will add flexibility to the DSO’s core job of securing energy supply and a stable network. There is, however, a need to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the DSO in relation to market actors such as aggregators, Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) and retailers, as well as in relation to transmission system operators (TSOs).

On September 16th 2013, EDSO for Smart Grids elected João Torres as its new Chairman, and welcomed RWE as its newest member. The meeting was followed on September 17th by a study visit to Barcelona's smart grid installations, attended by a group of MEPs from the European Parliament's ITRE committee and CEOs of Europe’s leading electricity distributers.

ESMIG, the European Smart Metering Industry Group, and EDSO, the European Distribution System Operators for Smart Grids and coordinator of the Meter-ON project, hosted a High Level Policy Conference on the progress made so far in implementing smart metering technologies across Europe. The conference, set during the EU Sustainable Energy Week, focused on the status of implementation of smart metering in Europe, and the technical and regulatory barriers currently endangering the uptake of smart metering solutions. Intermediate key findings, half way through the Meter-ON project, were presented.

High-level Policy Conference co-organised by the European Smart Metering Industry Group & the European Distribution System Operators for Smart Grids EDSO for Smart Grids and ESMIG invite you the European Sustainable Energy Week High-Level Policy Conference. The event will focus on the status of implementation of smart metering in Europe.

The conference, jointly hosted by EDSO for Smart Grids and the Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF) on March 21-22nd 2013, attracted some 160 high level smart grid stakeholders from around the world. Here are some highlights from the conference. Livio Gallo, the chairman of EDSO for Smart Grids, welcomed everyone and opened the conference by highlighting the strong development of larger and larger cities and their need of smart infrastructure in order to efficiently meet the needs of all their residents. He described the important challenges ahead for the development of smart grids and pointed out the need to start now if we want to be ready to face those challenges.

On February 20-21st 2013, the second InnoGrid2020+ electricity grid RD&D seminar, jointly organised by ENTSO-E, EDSO for Smart Grids and the GRID+ project, gathered more than 150 industry and member state representatives, researchers and policy makers in Brussels, to discuss the future needs for the European electricity system in order to reach the ambitious EU energy policy targets.

On the March 21-22nd 2013, EDSO for Smart Grids and the Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF) invite you to a joint event in Brussels, Belgium. The development of smart grids is a prerequisite for reaching key energy objectives – decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy efficiency and the share of renewable energy – bringing us faster and more cost-efficient to a future sustainable and competitive energy society.