The evolution from DNO to DSO requires a lot of new software to be written. Instead of each DNO re-inventing the wheel (and each spending £100s of millions on IT consultants) shouldn't the effort & code be shared across DSOs?

How could be done? (thread... )

One way would be for each DNO to employ a handful of software engineers who collab via orgs like the @energynetworks Digital Working Group. But coordination of such a large project will be hard because these folks will have conflicting priorities; & DNOs may struggle to recruit.

Or there could be a new, centralised group of software engineers & researchers, dedicated to writing software for the energy networks, but who use modern software development practices. Along the lines of the @GDSTeam or @ElectraLink.

Or DNOs leave it up to the market to deliver software solutions. For example, companies like @CamusEnergy (based in California & founded by 2 ex-Googlers) are building open-source grid management software as a service.

Or DNOs leave it up to the open source community. For example, @LFE_Foundation is "leading the energy transition through global open source collaboration".

Or - mostly likely - some combination of the above.

How do you think DNOs will cost-efficiently get software written in order to transition to DSOs?

Some challenges...

One big challenge is that the energy industry is changing rapidly so the software will need to evolve rapidly. Energy networks will need to stop procuring software in the same way as physical infrastructure, and instead embrace truly agile & iterative software development

And who's going to define the communications interfaces between all the moving parts? e.g. the interface between the ESO & DSOs; or between DSOs & DERs; or between DSOs & aggregators; or between the network operators and forecasting providers?

And who will be responsible for what? Are DSOs going to be responsible for directly controlling millions of DERs? Or will aggregators do that? Or will DSOs just emit locational prices & let DERs respond? How to prevent multiple operators sending conflicting instructions to DERs?