As a result of new requirements in terms of the availability of affordable primary energy sources, climate protection as well as the decentralised and discontinuous power feeding, power supply using grid-bound energy (electricity, gas and heat) is faced with fundamental changes. Meeting these changes requires the development and the use of efficient and flexible grid concepts that also meet future requirements.

The comprehensive changes in the energy industry through changed or changing

• customer requirements,
• regulatory framework conditions and
• technological developments

lead to significant challenges for the electricity industry with regard to reliability and profitability of the network infrastructures. Today´s distribution networks were realised on the basis of historic requirements and are the result of planning processes under outdated framework conditions due to the system´s sluggishness with economic investment cycles of 40 years, on average.