CEER publishes today its conclusions document on the future role of Distribution System Operators (C15-DSO-16-03). The result of an extensive public consultation process, our DSO paper examines the changing role of Distribution System Operators (DSOs) in a world of increased local generation and retail and wholesale market developments.
CEER recommends overriding principles for DSOs and a forward-looking framework to determine what DSOs should and should not do, in our belief that:
- DSOs need to be increasingly innovative and explore cost-effective smart and flexible solutions to running the grids of the future;
- DSOs must engage effectively with stakeholders, including new entrants and business models;
- DSOs have an important role as neutral market facilitators in well-functioning energy markets;
- DSOs must recognise that consumers own their data, and serving as neutral market facilitator should not automatically confer on the DSO the status of data management coordinator.
The paper addresses a number of regulatory areas which will influence key areas of CEER’s future work: the incentives on DSOs to manage their networks more cost-effectively and to foster innovation, examining the relationship between network tariffs and time-of-use tariffs to encourage demand-side response at retail level, and encouraging cooperation between DSOs and Transmission System Operators (TSOs).
CEER’s DSO paper and our coming paper on well-functioning retail markets are expected to complement the European Commission’s new communications on Energy Market Design and Retail Markets and the paper on self-consumption, helping to deliver a New Deal for energy consumers. CEER looks forward to cooperating with the European Commission and having an open dialogue with energy stakeholders on these and related issues concerning the regulation of DSOs.