The idea of GlobalDSO came about in 2020 when the industry faced unprecedented challenges. It became obvious that close contact of colleagues from different countries was needed for prompt consultations and experience exchange. The project is meant to facilitate the strategic dialogue development. The conference theme is "DSOs Boosting the Global Energy Transition: Investments and Resilience to Overcome the Pandemic Aftermath".

Andrey Mayorov, First Deputy Director General - Chief Engineer of Rosseti, noted during his speech that in most countries energy actors face similar challenges: 
- To choose the right technological solutions, new tools and services, taking into account global trends and trends in consumer behavior;

- To reach a new technological level, preventing the growth of tariffs;

- To further boost efficiency against the background of the distributed generation development, as well as the remaining traditional risks: natural wear and tear of equipment, reduced reliability during the generation integration based on RES, cyber threats.

“The exchange of best practices is important not only in times of fundamental challenges, but also in terms of the transition to a new model of functioning of the power grid complex. In particular, the industry faces ambitious challenges of changing the architecture and logic of power system management. At the same time, it is necessary to improve the characteristics that are of importance for consumers - the reliability and availability of power supply," noted Andrey Mayorov.

Working teams in the areas of the current agenda are being formed within the framework of GlobalDSO. Konstantin Mikhaylik, Deputy Director General of Rosseti, noted that the company is interested in analyzing the best practices in the field of digitalization.

Since 2017, when the company initiated a full-scale digital transformation, a package of solutions has been developed and the results have been achieved:

·       38 digital power grid districts, 22 grid control centres and 84 digital substations have been created;

·       A dynamic formation of the smart electricity metering system is underway - more than 2 million "smart" metering devices have already been installed;

·       263 charging stations for electric vehicles have been opened;

·       30 standards of digital transformation have been developed;

·       The general information model (CIM model) of a network of 35 kV and above has been created;

·    The functionality of the "Digital Electrician" project has been implemented in two subsidiary and associated companies. Replication is to begin in 2021;

·       A mobile application for customers, an updated portal for electricity grid services have been launched.

"We are looking at the possibilities of scaling our competencies in international markets. We are ready to both replicate our technologies and implement joint projects in an alliance with our foreign partners," noted Konstantin Mikhaylik.

The conference was held online. Among the organizers were the European associations E.DSO and Eurelectric (each uniting more than 30 companies), the US Electric Power Research Institute EPRI. Two platforms for experts from different countries and time zones have been opened - Russia, India, China, Italy, Germany, Portugal, France, USA, etc. The total number of participants exceeded 550 people.