Slovenia’s transmission network system operator ELES is the recipient of the Award of Excellence in the field of innovation, integration and smart grid system transformations. The topic for this year, announced by the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN), was digitalisation on a global level, which enables the empowerment of the consumer.
The NEDO project consortium, which consists of the Japanese agency NEDO, Hitachi and ELES, was the winning project for 2020, while the FutureFlow project, conceptualised by experts from ELES, was the runner up for the second-best.
ELES joined the NEDO project at the end of 2015 when the Japanese partners, due to the unresponsiveness of the Slovenian side, almost gave up on the idea of executing NEDO in Slovenia. The project now takes place in several locations across the country and numerous stakeholders are a part of it (companies for electricity transport and distribution, solution providers, research institutions and consumers).
“With integrated and centrally managed cloud-based solutions, which we are introducing within the NEDO project, we will make better use of the existing network, while costumers will receive a higher quality supply of electricity and the possibility of active participation on electricity markets and systemic services,” reads a company’s statement.
“As part of the project, the Japanese partner contributes modern equipment while ELES develops advanced functionalities,” explained the CEO of ELES, Aleksander Mervar, in an interview with CEENERGYNEWS.
On the other hand, the FutureFlow project addresses the most current problems when it comes to market integration and operating the system. ELES put together a consortium of international partners and submitted an application for co-financing the project within the framework of the programme Horizon 2020. The application was successful and the FutureFlow project became the largest research project, which was financed by the programme Horizon 2020 and was led by a Slovenian company.
Mr Mervar stated, after the announcement of the awards, that with these two awards ELES also obtained great international recognition for its activities when it comes to innovation and development of smart networks.
