Can electricity grids go beyond transmission and distribution? | Viviana Vitto on Net Zero

Why do TSOs and DSOs need to cooperate more than in the past? Viviana Vitto, Head of Market Studies and Strategic Analysis at Enel Global Infrastructure and Networks, joins Joana Freitas, Ambassador of the Lights on Women initiative of the FSR, to discuss how the energy transition is shaping the need and configuration of TSO/DSO coordination. In Viviana’s perspective, decentralized generation, electrification and electric vehicles are growing at a fast pace and, given this new context, “TSOs and DSOs have just not the need but the responsibility to cooperate in order to rethink the energy system”. In fact, several European grid operators have been participating in TSO/DSO coordination pilots, as CoordiNet and SmartNet. The Clean Energy Package also paves the way to a closer cooperation between TSOs and DSOs. One of the measures determined by this package is the creation of a DSO entity, which, in Viviana’s view, “will play an important role to implement this cooperation and identifying the needs of the future system”. Vivana also notes that regulation is one of the key enablers of TSO/DSO coordination – “[TSO/DSO coordination] cannot be fast enough without the supportive regulatory framework”. While the electricity system is evolving at a fast pace, driving TSOs and DSOs to cooperate more than in the past…we need to keep all the options open for the time being”.

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