Source - DSO Entity DNDP Good Practices (2024)

Metadata

What this source is

A draft working paper by the EU DSO Entity’s Task Force TYNDP, intended as a foundational guide to DNDP good practices across the EU. Surveys were conducted with external stakeholders including ENTSO-E, SmartEN, AVERE, ChargeUp Europe, GEODE, the European Investment Bank, and the European Association for Storage of Energy.

This document is explicitly complemented by — and was a primary input to — the ACER/CEER DNDP Guidance published in July 2025.

Note on status: Labeled as a draft as of June 2024. Sweden is absent from the Annex A country comparison table.

Summary

Executive summary

• DNDP required by Directive Art. 32(3)-(4): biennial; published and submitted to NRA
• Purpose: address existing and emerging challenges; align with NECPs; support RES expansion, electrification, and demand flexibility
• Generally not intended to detail individual DSO investments — strategic overview of investment categories
• FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) recommended for data publication

Section 2 — Key considerations

Purpose, content, application (§2.1):

• Non-binding guide; includes estimated investment amounts
• Provides transparency for TSOs, NRAs, investors, and market participants
• 5–10 year forecasting horizon; HV planning more reliable long-term than MV/LV

Scenarios (§2.2):

• Multiple scenarios advantageous given inherent uncertainty
• External sources DSOs can build on: NECPs, ENTSO-E TYNDP scenarios, national TSO scenarios, independent entity scenarios, municipal/regional planning data
• Critical evaluation of external scenarios required — they may not reflect local reality
• Recommendation: synchronize scenario timelines across actors

Good practice — Netherlands: Joint “Integrated Infrastructure Outlook II3050” — TenneT, Gasunie, and regional system operators exploring pathways to climate-neutral energy in 2050.

Good practice — Germany: DSOs in planning regions draw up a regional scenario as a common basis. Accessible via https://www.vnbdigital.de/service/region

Stakeholder inclusion (§2.3):

• Stakeholder engagement varies by country and NRA requirements
• Can be online or in-person; before publishing final DNDP
• Good practice — France: Enedis organized 3 ad hoc workshops within the French electricity distribution network user committee, focusing on RES, flexibilities, and EVs

Section 3 — The Model DNDP

Four essential sections:

1. Current state of the distribution system:

• Network infrastructure: line lengths (HV/MV/LV), substations, voltage levels, geographic description, customer count, distributed generation capacity, smart meter deployment
• Operational framework: ownership structure, investment decision process, regulatory framework
• Goals: security of supply, DER integration, quality KPIs (reliability, efficiency, sustainability)

2. Planning assumptions and scenario building: Key inputs: energy consumption and production forecasts; grid connection increase; EV charging/heat pump/storage growth; flexibility options; TSO/DSO interface data; quality of service targets

• HV planning: accurate long-term; MV/LV: shorter horizon, harder to predict
• Role of digitalization: increases grid observability and data availability for planning

3. Planning principles: Framework for how needs are identified and resolved: business objectives, climate/sustainability goals, bottleneck identification, methods to address bottlenecks, investment portfolio, national implementation plans, flexibility options, stakeholder feedback

4. Concrete measures, projects, and programs:

• Description of planned distribution infrastructure investments
• Transparency on investment amounts and timelines
• Impact on neighboring operators
• Analysis of flexibility use and/or measures to increase efficiency of existing infrastructure
• Estimated investment volumes on a year-by-year basis

Good practice — France: Enedis describes investments as programs rather than individual projects (e.g., Planned Refurbishment — cyclical MV overhead network upgrade on 25-year cycle, prioritized by incident analysis)

Section 4 — Next steps and Recommendations

Anticipatory investments:

• New EMD introduces “anticipatory investments” concept — investments based on longer-term expectations, not just current requests
• More proactive grid planning; certain level of risk assessment required
• DNDPs should indicate which planned developments are “anticipatory” — enabling stakeholders to see where grid capacity will be available even ahead of actual requests

European knowledge platform:

• Proposes collecting links to published DNDPs at EU level
• FAIR principles for data accessibility
• Common template for a generalized data annex across European DNDPs

Permitting:

• DNDP can serve as foundation to accelerate permitting and enhance social acceptance
• HV expansion particularly affected by permitting delays

Annex A — Country comparison

Note: Sweden is absent from this table. Finland’s inclusion of Swedish as a DNDP language is notable for Scandinavian context.

Relevance to wiki

Directly informs: Distribution Network Development Plan, Flexibility Need Assessment, Network Code on Demand Response

Relationship to other sources:

• Pre-dates and feeds into Source - ACER CEER DNDP Guidance (2025), which explicitly builds on this document
• Consistent with NC DR Art. 43–44 DNDP requirements formalized in Source - NC DR Amended Text (ACER Recommendation 01-2025 Annex 1)
• The flexibility assessment section (§3.4 “analysis on the use of flexibility”) aligns with FNA requirements in Source - FNA Bilagor I-V (2025-2026)

Key additions to wiki:

• “Anticipatory investments” concept introduced
• Country comparison table with concrete DNDP characteristics
• Three-step European DNDP knowledge platform concept (later echoed in ACER/CEER)
• Good practices from France (programs), Netherlands (II3050), Germany (planning regions)