During the fall of 2022, the National Regulatory Authorities (NRA) notified that they intended to introduce several extensive changes in the electricity grid regulation for the next regulatory period 2024-2027. The regulatory and financial functions at E.ON Energidistribution then began extensive work. E.ON Energidistribution initially ran this project with internal resources, but soon realized that both tactical and operational support was necessary.

In order for the power system to deliver electricity, it must be in balance. In line with the growth that the power system is experiencing, both in terms of production and consumption, which has become increasingly difficult to plan or predict, it is required that electricity market actors contribute with various types of services and measures at system level.

It is no secret that major changes are taking place in the Swedish energy system. The electricity grid was largely built several decades ago and designed for the electricity needs of a different era. If a large-scale investment in electrification is to take place, the electricity grid must also be able to handle larger power flows. An accompanying challenge is knowing where in the grid the need for reinforcements is greatest. This is a challenge that the client spends a lot of time and resources on to find a solution.

It is well known that all electricity meters (in Sweden and several countries) must be equipped with a HAN port (home network port) according to authority requirements. This requirement is effective as of 2025. Via the HAN port (or as it is called; "HAN/P1 port"), you as a customer can yourself connect smart products that retrieve measured values and information about your electricity use in near real time.

E.ON Energidistribution has for several years conducted development projects within flexibility solutions and has thereby been a leader in the industry in this area. However, a significant challenge has been to implement and anchor flexibility solutions in operational and decision-making processes.

E.ON Energidistribution is in a transformative phase where the focus is on developing both it's own and the electricity grid business, in order to meet the increasing demands from electrification and the energy transition. The strategic move is ambitious and requires IT development, innovation, technology development and operational development to be coordinated, prioritized and coordinated.

Novion provides project management services to E.ON in a unique pilot project in the Skåne village of Simris. Here, E.ON lays the foundation for the future energy system.

Contribution to the electricity mix from intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar increases steadily every year, in favor of plannable power. At the same time, the need for electricity will continue to increase with the electrification of the transport and industrial sectors, which also leads to new patterns in consumption. Together, this will change the conditions for the Swedish electricity system in such a way that production and consumption need to be more intertwined. Parallel to this, Sweden faces challenges when it comes to electricity supply, with its transmission system suffering from lack of capacity and the risk of temporary power shortages.

The electricity grid is an extremely complex system that is an essential cog for the Swedish energy supply. Electricity consumption is also expected to increase sharply in the coming decades, which will further increase the importance of the electricity grid. At the same time, large parts of the electricity grid are outdated and so is the way of working around delivery security. In order to be able to make informed and more reality-based decisions regarding the electricity grid's supply security and potential risks, better insights are needed into the grid's current network components.

Long lead times and the current regulations surrounding the expansion of the electricity grid lead to the grid not being adapted to the accelerating energy transition and electrification. This in turn risks leading to societal problems with periodic power shortages and long lead times for new connections. Within the EU project Coordinet, they wanted to investigate whether capacity markets and flexibility could be a potential solution to capacity challenges in the electricity grid.

E.ON Energidistribution has for several years conducted projects and business development within flexibility solutions and has thus been a leader in the industry in this area. However, a significant challenge, both for E.ON and the industry as a whole, is that there is a lack of financial incentives in the electricity grid regulation to use flexibility solutions.

Smart Cities Accelerator + (SCA+) develops and tests methods to make electricity and heat more climate-friendly and energy consumption in buildings as efficient as possible.

In order to tackle new regulatory requirements and to enable community expansion without costly infrastructural expansion, E.ON in the UK has created a smart network that favors sustainable house development. This new concept guarantees that the capacity of the local power grid is not exceeded.

ANM4L has investigated and demonstrated solutions to increase the utilization rate of existing grid assets while maintaining security of supply. The ANM4L project has studied how to prevent overload and overvoltage situations in distribution networks, which arise from increased levels of distributed RES.