Brussels, 13 May 2019. ‘Connecting physics and digits: Power Platforms on the rise’, is the title of this year’s Innogrid2020+ conference. The organisers, E.DSO and ENTSO-E, kicked off the 8th edition of this two-day event in the classic ‘Art Deco’ surroundings of Albert Hall in Brussels, where history and future come together.

The first day included sessions on disruptive technologies, innovation policy and targets for 2030 as well as a CEO business track panel on innovation.

Moreover, the winners of the 3rd Ana Aguado Scholarship Award were announced. Katia Schubert and Pauline Lego received the award for their excellent essays on energy regulation in a decarbonised, decentralised and digitalised context.

Aiming to become an energy lawyer, Pauline Lego is currently enrolled in a Double Master’s Degree in European Affairs with a specialisation in Energy, Resources and Sustainability at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Sciences Po Paris. Katia Schubert is currently finishing her Master’s in International Energy at Sciences Po Paris and has undertaken several internships in the sector.

The five associations behind the Ana Aguado Scholarship Award (Bernard Energy, eurelectric, Florence School of Regulation, ENTSO-E and E.DSO) offered two free seats to the winners for participating in the Summer School on Regulation of Energy Utilities at the Florence School. Since many highly qualified applicants had applied for a scholarship, it was decided to allocate additional seats to the five next applicants in line for an online training of their choice at the Florence School.

Furthermore, E.DSO and ENTSO-E have given the **2nd European Power Network Award **to WPD’s Signposting Information project and to CyberGRID’s CyberNOC project.

WPD’s Signposting data provides a 5 year indication of potential system needs for flexibility across four industry-aligned future energy scenarios. This information will allow flexibility providers to understand where flexibility might be needed on the distribution network, in the future, and will help inform the market potential.

The digital platform “cyberNOC” is about the seamless and secure integration of battery energy storage systems (BESS) and electric vehicles (EVs) with aggregators, electricity markets, and grid operators. cyberNOC’s platform enables the pooling of thousands of batteries and support the provision of localised flexibility services (active and reactive power).