Going digital – how is technology changing the electricity world? Chris Peeters on Net Zero

In this episode, Chris Peeters, CEO of the Elia Group, shares his views with Joana Freitas, Ambassador for the Lights on Women initiative of the FSR, on what the digitalisation of the energy system really means and discusses the key challenges and consequences for different market players. In Chris Peeters’ perspective, one of the immediate uses of digital technologies will be on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of day-to-day activities. On the other hand, Chris also notes that digitalisation will enable an efficient interaction amongst the different actors of a system that will be much more decentralized and electrified. In this new context, consumers will play an increasingly important role as we will be moving to “the concept of, first of all, consumer in the centre and, secondly, around that consumer, providers of energy as a service”. Thanks to digitalisation, market players will also become much more agile in addressing consumers’ specific needs. Regarding electricity grid operators, Chris Peeters points out two lines of action for the coming years: continue investing in the infrastructure to adjust to the new system setup and “making sure that the system evolves in a way that is actually adapting to the new needs of the clients”. Throughout this transition, “all these technologies [blockchain, artificial intelligence, drones, satellite images and big data] have somewhere their place in the system”. Regarding the large investments expected to digitize networks, Chris Peeters believes that “we should really limit the regulated sector to […] a very robust, lean and mean layer, and all the other investments need to prove themselves as commercially viable.”

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