DSO Entity launches an original ‘EU DSO map’ providing for the first time on a single chart a state of play of distribution grid in the EU, highlighting the diversity of DSOs and their key role as the technical enablers of the Fit for 55 Package. By displaying a set of data collected from DSO members in all EU Member States, the map shows the expected impact of the implementation of the EU’s energy and climate targets on the distribution grid, while underlining the current level of progress achieved compared to the ambitions.
DSOs strongly contribute to delivering the EU’s 42.5% Renewable Energy (RES) target by connecting more than 70% of the additional RES installations to the distribution grid by 2030. DSOs also play a central role in the electrification of transport and heating and cooling sectors by integrating the roll-out of the 30 million electric vehicles expected on European roads and the 10 million additional heat pumps to be installed in the EU over the next 5 years.
Across Member States, European DSOs are highly diverse and differ in number, size, and organisation. Together they manage 10 million of kilometers of grids across the EU, representing around 97% of the total EU’s power lines, and connecting 260 million households to the EU’s power system. Inherited from the historical way the energy network infrastructure (in particular low- and medium-voltage levels) developed in early days, this diversity aspect constitutes a unique particularity of the distribution grid in Europe.
Illustrating how diverse DSOs are in the EU, the EU DSO map provides an up-to-date picture of the electricity distribution grids in the EU-27. For each Member State, the map provides key facts on:
• The number of DSOs and the level of DSO concentration.
• The number of customers connected to the electricity distribution grid.
• The length of the power distribution grid.
• The level of deployment of smart meters.
To download the EU DSO Map, click here.
To read DSO Entity’s dedicated article in Euractiv, press here.
Background information on the EU DSO map’s data:
• National datasets have been collected by DSO Entity’s Country Expert Group and relate to electricity DSOs in the European Union.
• Concentration of electricity DSOs taken from Eurelectric, “Grids for Speed Report”, 2024. Available online.
• * Please note the percentage displayed for the roll-out of smart meters in Bulgaria is an estimate and refers, in the absence of legal definition of smart meter functionalities, to meters supporting smart metering.
Sources
1 Directive (EU) 2023/2413 of 18 October 2023, amending Directive (EU) 2018/2001, Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 and Directive 98/70/EC as regards the promotion of energy from renewable sources, and repealing Council Directive (EU) 2015/652.
2 Eurostat, Share of renewable energy sources in the EU’s gross final energy consumption in 2022. Available online.
3 Communication COM/2020/789 of 9 December 2020 from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions “Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy – putting European transport on track for the future”.
4 European Alternative Fuels Observatory, total of Battery Electric Vehicles and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles fleets in 2024. Available online.
5 Communication COM/2022/230 of 18 May 2022 from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, “REPowerEU Plan”.
6 European Heat Pump Association (2023), “European Heat Pump Market Statistics Report 2023”. Available online.