Top-Level European Planning for Smart Grid

Europe is ahead of the world's other highly industrialized areas in planning for the smart grid. A well-elaborated vision, developed in the framework of European Union institutions, anticipates that the traditional distinction between transmission and T&D will blur and disappear, and that the end-user will more and more become a "prosumer", producing as well as consuming energy locally. Europe's 2020 targets for renewable generation will only be achievable, in fact, if smart grid features are exploited to the fullest.