Circular economy is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible.
DSOs wish to reduce the environmental footprint of their activity: this includes the carbon footprint, but also the impact of other products (lead, single-use plastic, etc.) and more generally the consumption of natural resources. Resource consumption takes place during network operation but also during the construction of new structures. An effective way to reduce this footprint is to re-use existing equipment as much as possible. Many innovations must be developed to progress in the desired direction.
Highlights
The European Commission adopted the new circular economy action plan (CEAP) in March 2020. This is one of the main building blocks of the European Green Deal, Europe’s new agenda for sustainable growth. The EU transition to a circular economy will reduce pressure on natural resources and will create sustainable growth and jobs. It is also a prerequisite to achieve the EU 2050 climate neutrality target and to halt biodiversity loss and the majority of regulations foreseen in the plan, have been implemented.
Challenges and opportunities for DSOs
Opportunities
- Reduction of carbon emissions.
- Reduction of the consumption of rare resources.
- Improvement of corporate image through commitment to the ecological transition.
- Positive impact at long term on rare resources costs.
Challenges
- Possible increase in costs at short/middle term.
- Impact on OPEX/CAPEX balance.
- Control of component reliability and warranty management.
- Creation of the industrial sector necessary to support these objectives.
- Sovereignty of this industrial sector.
- End-of-life management: improving end-of-life management and preparing for re-use, through: the disassembly of the product (disassembly time, number of parts, absence of gluing, etc.) and increasing its recyclability and separability (effective recyclability rate after dismantling).
E.DSO considerations
- DSOs must aim to reuse materials as much as technically and economically possible: incorporation of recycled materials in the manufacturing of equipment, repair of components (including old ones) when possible, etc.
- The network tariff provisions, and in particular those relating to the remuneration of investments, must encourage DSOs to take action in the fields of recycling and circular economy.
- DSOs must undertake, in conjunction with component suppliers, research and development work to find solutions allowing components to be reused as much as possible.
Potential use cases
- Use of cables made partly from recycled materials.
- Refurbishment of end-of-life transformers.
- Repair of equipment in primary and secondary substations, even old ones.
- Reuse of some of the components (metallic cable support, etc.) during the renovation of old overhead lines.
Ongoing projects
- Enedis is carrying out the following projects related to recycling and circular economy:
- Retrofit of the mobile part of certain medium voltage (MV) circuit breakers (the fixed part is retained, even beyond 20 years).
- Transition from cutting in SF to cutting in vacuum while retaining the fixed part of the initial MV circuit breaker.
- Repair of MV/LV transformers.
- Scheduled renovation of HV/MV transformers (lifespan extended by 15 years).
- Scheduled renovation of MV overhead lines (lifespan extended by 25 years).
- For the new equipment that is purchased, integration into calls for tenders of better-distance criteria concerning the principles of the circular economy (eco-design, end-of-life management).
- Stedin focuses on the “front-end” of their processes where they can identify several opportunities for increasing sustainability. Examples include adjusting specifications to avoid undesirable materials, adopting designs that require fewer materials, including sustainability as a criterion in the selection of products, and challenging suppliers to develop sustainable alternatives. Plenty of attention is being paid to cables and buildings, as these are areas in which a huge impact can be achieved.
- The EDP networks platform, which is currently operating in Portugal (E-REDES), Spain and Brazil, is developing a 2-year Iberian project on circular economy, based on the EDP group policy, with seven axes of action: efficiency in the use of resources and materials, product longevity, digitalisation, resource valorisation, new business models, circular supplies and influence/awareness. The main goal is to achieve an 85% operational waste valorization by 2026 and an 85% increase in the total waste recycled from operations by 2025. In this project, the circularity and carbon footprint of the network assets were assessed, and an implementation roadmap was designed, and is currently being implemented.
- E.ON is carrying out several activities related to recycling and circular economy: using circular wooden poles for overhead lines, refurbishing old transformers, reusing transformer oil, introducing an internal platform to reuse components and repairing high voltage (HV) transformers, introducing sustainability targets on circularity in planning.
- ORES is reconditioning (i.e., replacing insulators with plugs to avoid direct HV contact) transformers that have reached a certain age but which are not at the end of their life yet.
Link to the relevant E.DSO success cases
| Success case number | Title | Company |
| 20.2025 | Cartoline | Enedis |
| 4.2024 | DeepGourboGen | Enedis |
Impact on the energy system: Recycling and circular economy does not necessarily change how grid is operated, but they change how the grid is built, maintained, renewed and expanded. Recycling and circular economy extend the lifetime of grid assets, reduce material use and waste, and lower the environmental footprint of electricity infrastructure. By reducing the need for full replacement and promoting more sustainable procurement, they can also defer investment needs and free up resources for grid modernisation and electrification.
Link to relevant EU policies
- In general, policies in the domain of Sustainability/biodiversity protection and Circular economy.
- In particular, Circular Economy Act, Competitiveness Compass, Clean Industrial Deal, Circular Economy Action Plan, Regulation on Packaging Waste & Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment.
Technology deployment across countries with E.DSO members
Last update: 12 September 2026