EDSO for Smart Grids elects Christian Buchel as new Chairperson
Christian Buchel
EDSO Board of Directors, gathered today in Brussels, elected Christian Buchel, EDSO’s Vice-Chairperson and Chair of the Policy Committee, as the new Chairperson of the association. As first words in his new position, he underlined the key priorities ahead for EDSO: digitalisation and innovation, as well as the EU DSO Entity.
An engineer of Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité (Supélec), Christian Buchel is currently Deputy CEO and Chief Digital & International Officer (CDIO) of France’s largest DSO Enedis, having spent his career throughout the entire value chain of the electricity industry. Among others, he held various top-management positions within the EDF Group. He has notably been Member of the Board and COO of Energie Baden-Württemberg (EnBW) in Germany as well as CEO of Electricité de Strasbourg. In the late 1990s, Christian Buchel has also served as advisor to EDF’s CEO.
His election took place as João Torres, who was chairing EDSO since 2013, announced he was stepping down from his position to take on new challenges within his current activities at EDP Distribuição of Portugal. Mr Torres’ chairmanship was commended by all EDSO members and he will remain active in EDSO’s membership in the position of Vice-Chairman.
EDSO Board of Directors also confirmed its willingness to make of EDSO the vehicle to the creation of the EU DSO Entity. Based on the decision of the Board of Directors, further proceedings and details will be set in the coming weeks.
In addition to this, a high-level breakfast was held this morning with ENTSO-E’s Chairmanship, back-to-back with InnoGrid2020+, the leading event on smart grid innovation that was hosted by the two associations on 26 & 27 June. EDSO and ENTSO-E are committed to conducting regular exchanges as the Clean Energy for All Europeans Package deems an enhanced DSO/TSO Cooperation as instrumental to the smartening of the European power system.
