Europe’s DSOs moving towards a new digital model
Jonathan Spencer Jones
Posted on: 15 January 2026
Europe’s DSOs are moving from service providers to digital partners in customer interactions, a survey from E.DSO indicates.
The survey of seven DSOs across Europe aimed to explore trends in web portals, apps, smart metering and AI for customer services.
While the numbers are small they are nevertheless sufficient to draw some trends, with E.DSO finding that the level of digitalisation remains uneven with just over half providing fully automated customer interaction services.
Nevertheless there is strong emphasis on automation with almost all implementing projects using AI, such as robotic process automation, voice bots, optical character recognition and integrated self-service portals.
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Fitting the DSO into an increasingly digital world
Indeed AI has become standard practice, with all using it at least partially and most having AI or data science teams.
The result is a reduction in contact centre workload thanks to remote diagnostics, clear status updates and outage notifications and with all DSOs reporting full compliance with GDPR and most having a dedicated data protection officer overseeing their data related projects.
Looking at AI specifically most of the successful implementations are in DSOs with a centralised data warehouse, structured data governance (standard formats, quality control, cleaning) and application programming interface (API) integrations for real-time access.
Most also have R&D units, with most efforts focussed on data analytics, AI algorithm development and the creation of new digital services, but few directly manage AI projects.
The seven DSOs surveyed were DTEK (Ukraine), E-REDES (Portugal), HEDNO (Greece), i-DE (Spain), Netz Niederösterreich (Austria), ORES (Belgium) and UFD Naturgy Group (Spain).
All of them have deployed smart meters, although penetration levels differ by country, and a gap remains between mature and early-stage DSOs. Leaders are piloting generative AI in customer service, while less advanced companies are still focused on basic automation, online payments and single-channel interaction.
The study concludes that the digital transformation in DSOs is progressing steadily, and the challenge now lies in achieving full integration rather than initiating change.
The foundations – apps, portals, smart metering and AI – are already in place across almost all participating companies. What now differentiates leaders from followers is not the presence of digital tools, but the depth of their integration, the quality of their data and the consistency of customer experience across channels.
E.DSO chair Johan Mörnstam noted: “Digitalisation is not an end in itself. It is a way for DSOs to improve service quality, strengthen operational resilience and contribute to Europe’s clean energy transition.”
The study concludes with suggesting three priorities that will define the next phase of digitalisation in the sector:
- AI integration across customer service and operational processes;
- Unified data ecosystems built around trusted, centralised databases;
- Customer-centric design ensuring services are simple, transparent and reliable.
While the energy sector may move at a different pace than retail or telecom, it is building a more sustainable foundation: a trusted, data-driven relationship with consumers. As digitalisation deepens, DSOs will evolve from basic service providers into active partners in the energy transition – supporting flexibility, smarter consumption and Europe’s broader decarbonisation goals.
