The Enel Group has unveiled Gridspertise, a new subsidiary that is fully dedicated to supporting DSOs in the delivery of a new era of sustainable and reliable smart grids for all. The new company is fully owned by Enel through its subsidiary Global Infrastructure and Networks, a world leader in the management of electricity distribution infrastructure.
“We are proud to launch Gridspertise, entrusting it with our strong legacy of transforming distribution networks around the world into smart grids,” said Francesco Starace, CEO and General Manager of Enel. “The energy transition must rely on renewable electricity being efficiently distributed by smart grids that are open to all energy players willing to contribute to a fully electric future. Reliable and flexible smart grids are the primary enabler and contributor to decarbonization and deep electrification targets, paving the way to our net zero objectives.”
“The new venture gathers the unique expertise of Enel in progressively digitalizing its grids around the world, made up of more than 2.2 million kilometers of power lines monitored by hundreds of thousands of remote control points. Enel’s 20 years of experience in the smart metering field through massive roll-out projects totaling over 44 million active devices connected to its grids, as well as its efficient digital management of more than 30 million field operations executed every year for13 distribution companies across eight countries, ensure that all the solutions Gridspertise will offer are reliable and field-tested at scale,” said Antonio Cammisecra, Head of the Enel Global Infrastructure and Networks business line.
“Gridspertise’s mission is to become a trusted partner for DSOs all over the world. The spinoff company will help electricity distribution companies of any size and geography to roll out integrated smart grid solutions in order to meet the evolving needs of grid users and electricity end-customers,” stated Robert Denda, CEO of Gridspertise.
Gridspertise’s portfolio of products and services highlights the company’s commitment to delivering innovative, circular-by-design, robust solutions that have been field-tested at a large scale in order to achieve sustainable and reliable smart grids while promoting more efficient energy usage and enabling new services. The offer is structured around three main domains of DSOs’ digitalization needs across the entire value chain:
- Metering and grid edge digitalization, focused on increasing customer engagement and stakeholder participation through smart metering and grid edge technologies that also enable electricity prosumers’ involvement in the markets;
- Network infrastructure digitalization, aimed at boosting the intelligence and flexibility of power grids in order to accelerate digitalization across the board, increasing efficiency, reliability and quality of service and supporting DSOs to tackle the challenges that network operations are facing;
- Field operations digitalization, aimed at increasing operating efficiency through innovative solutions for planning and operation processes, while enhancing safety for both in-house and contractors’ field workers.
The solutions and services delivered by Gridspertise provide benefits for the entire electric ecosystem. DSOs can increase their quality of service, reduce operating costs, optimize investments in new infrastructure and enhance field operation safety, productivity and sustainability.
Grid stakeholders, or those who access the infrastructure to develop electricity-related business models, can benefit from the transformation of grids into platforms that are open to distributed energy resources and facilitate the development of the energy services market, including flexibility, and the electrification of end uses.
DSO end customers, on the other hand, benefit from a more reliable electricity supply, facilitating the full electrification of their energy consumption, fostering energy efficiency through better control of data, and allowing them to participate in the energy markets by making it easier to become a prosumer, integrating individual stationary storage or participating in aggregation schemes with their electric vehicles.
Gridspertise will primarily target markets in Europe and Latin America, where the Enel Group already has a strong presence, and will aim to expand in North America and the Asia-Pacific region, where investments in smart grids will drive infrastructure upgrade projects in the near future.