RTE and TenneT, the two largest European electricity transmission system operators (TSOs), will discuss their digitalisation and open source strategies in a webinar on 8 August 2019. Both operators are members of Linux Foundation Energy (LF Energy), a coalition of IT and energy organisations and research institutes working jointly on open-source solutions for innovation and transition.

We recognise that open source is the commodity foundation upon which the entire IT industry rests, Loek Bakker, Head of the CIO Office of TenneT, writes in a blog post. For TenneT, like many other utilities, open source is essential to our strategic success.

Réseau de Transport d'Électricité (RTE) [1, 2] is the TSO for France and responsible for the largest high-voltage transmission system in Europe. RTE is a "premier" member of LF Energy, together with The Faraday Grid.

TenneT [1, 2] is the Dutch TSO and is also responsible for a large part of the transmission network in Germany.

Open innovation and cost reduction

Tennet recently published its open-source strategy, making the document itself available under a Creative Commons license. The subtitle of the publication sets out the starting point of the strategy: In the smart grid all players take part. An open market demands open software. The document goes on to explain how open source is the dominant software model for open innovation and provides opportunities to lower software costs.

At the same time, open source ensures the interoperability of the interconnected systems and easy access for newcomers to this distributed infrastructure, facilitating decentralised energy networks managed through software-defined infrastructures (SDI).

Webinar

On 8 August, Bakker from TenneT and Lucian Balea, R&D Programme Director and Open Source Manager at RTE, together with Shuli Goodman, Executive Director of LF Energy, will be hosting a webinar in which they will discuss the open source strategies of the two TSOs and their reasons for joining LF Energy.