As in previews events, the SOGNO model attracted a lot of visitors and was very helpful in explaining the project in a visual way.
Marco Pau from RWTH Aachen University presented the concept of SOGNO and the most recent status of the field trials in an interactive breakout session where the role of open platforms for fostering the uptake of innovative services and for the interaction with the electricity market was discussed. The need for harmonization and possible changes in the regulation were in particular pointed out during the discussion. SOGNO played a key role in this perspective, as the consortium hade pushed for the recognition of incentives to the DSOs for Operating Expenses (OPEX) and not only Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) thus facilitating the adoption of software solutions in place of network reinforcements. Incentives for OPEX are now officially proposed in the EU Winter Package.
Furthermore, the challenges and barriers for the transfer of innovations to DSOs were also discussed. The use of 5G and the virtualization concepts promoted in SOGNO allow overcoming some of the main barriers, thanks to the possibility to offer the management functions as turnkey services to both, large and small DSOs, with increased levels of security and reliability.
