IN Brief:
- Siemens and Alliander have detailed a grid software collaboration built around Gridscale X.
- Alliander has expanded medium-voltage grid coverage from 65% to 100% and migrated 85 applications.
- The work supports forecasting, flexibility, and more active distribution system operation.
Siemens and Dutch distribution system operator Alliander have set out a grid software collaboration to support more active distribution network operation.
The work is built around Siemens’ Gridscale X platform, which provides a shared digital foundation for utility applications, planning, and operational workflows. Alliander has integrated its own applications into the platform, increasing medium-voltage grid coverage from 65% to 100% and migrating 85 applications.
Alliander is the largest distribution system operator in the Netherlands, covering roughly 40% of the country. Its network is operating under pressure from grid congestion, rapid electrification, distributed generation, and rising demand for new connections. The software programme links network data, planning processes, forecasting, and operational decisions in a single digital environment.
Distribution operation is moving beyond the traditional DSO model built around long-term planning, asset management, and fault response. Networks now have to manage embedded generation, batteries, heat pumps, EV charging, flexible loads, and new industrial demand. Those changes can alter grid conditions quickly, especially in constrained areas with limited spare capacity.
Gridscale X sits between long-term planning and operational management. That middle layer is becoming central to network operation because constraints must be identified before they become live problems. Forecasting, flexibility procurement, connection planning, switching decisions, and outage management all depend on accurate network visibility and reliable data exchange between IT and OT systems.
The Dutch market has become one of Europe’s clearest examples of distribution congestion. Renewable deployment, electrification, and large new loads have increased demand for capacity faster than reinforcement can be delivered in some regions. Flexibility is now part of routine system operation, not a temporary measure used only until new cables and substations are built.
The same market direction is visible across Dutch energy optimisation. Pure Energie has selected Kraken for asset optimisation across wind, solar, batteries, and consumer load in the Netherlands, linking asset operation with TenneT-facing market functions. Siemens and Alliander are developing the network operator layer, where digital systems determine how flexibility can be used safely and where it can relieve congestion.
Legacy utility systems remain a major barrier to active operation. Many distribution businesses operate separate planning, asset, outage, GIS, control, and customer systems, often developed at different times for different functions. Fragmented systems slow decisions and make it harder to maintain a common operating view of the network.
Migrating applications onto a shared grid model gives operators a stronger base for automation, scenario modelling, and cross-functional workflows. A common digital environment can improve the link between customer connection requests, network constraints, asset condition, flexibility availability, and reinforcement planning.
Flexibility-led operation does not remove the need for physical investment. New cables, transformers, substations, switchgear, and protection systems remain essential where structural load growth exceeds existing capacity. Digital systems change how existing assets are used while reinforcement is planned and delivered, and they help prioritise capital investment where flexibility cannot provide enough relief.
The operating model also changes the skills required inside distribution businesses. Planners, control engineers, asset managers, flexibility teams, and digital specialists need to work from consistent network data and shorter decision cycles. Software is becoming part of the operational grid rather than a back-office layer supporting conventional asset management.
Siemens and Alliander’s collaboration places digital architecture at the centre of distribution system operation. The grid is becoming a platform for power flows, flexible assets, market coordination, and network data. In constrained systems, the quality of the software stack increasingly affects how much capacity can be used before new infrastructure is built.
