Self-consumers with photovoltaic installations above 400 kW connected to Greece’s interconnected system were required to install remote monitoring and remote-control equipment by Sept. 15. The obligation follows an eight-month compliance period set by distribution operator HEDNO. The requirement also applies to photovoltaic plants installed behind the customer’s meter.
Operators are required to submit compliance documentation covering both station equipment and integration with HEDNO’s SCADA and distribution-management systems. The measure is described as an operational and system-security requirement. Its longer-term significance is linked to digital infrastructure being installed within industrial energy systems.
Remote visibility and control for industrial self-generation
Factories that previously used onsite solar largely as a private asset to reduce electricity purchases can become visible and technically controllable from the distribution-system level. As rooftop and behind-the-meter solar expands, distribution operators need to understand conditions beyond the customer’s meter. A large photovoltaic installation can materially affect power flows on a local network when industrial demand falls while solar output remains high.
Remote monitoring provides visibility of what is happening beyond the meter. Remote control gives the network operator a mechanism to manage production when required. The immediate outcome may be additional curtailment capability rather than a new revenue stream for industrial self-consumers.
The same communications infrastructure could later support more sophisticated services. Once generation at an industrial site can be measured and controlled remotely, it becomes technically easier to combine solar output with flexible production loads and equipment such as electric boilers, refrigeration, and EV charging under a common energy-management system. An aggregator could then potentially optimise the entire factory connection rather than managing only one generation asset.
A factory connection can involve both generation and consumption at the same time. One example given is a site producing 1 MW from rooftop solar while consuming 3 MW. In that setup, the grid service may not require shutting down solar generation; it could involve increasing factory consumption when local solar output is high or reducing electricity use later when system conditions tighten.
Implications for flexibility services and grid connections
The emerging architecture could also support flexible grid connections. Instead of reinforcing a local network whenever a new industrial load or generation project reaches its theoretical maximum, a DSO could offer connection capacity subject to agreed operating limits. Customers that accept remote control or automated demand management could obtain faster or cheaper connections in exchange for flexibility during constrained periods.
The remote-control requirement itself does not create an automatic commercial market for industrial self-consumers. There is no stated payment solely because HEDNO can remotely monitor or control installations. However, telemetry, communications, and controllability are described as prerequisites for local flexibility markets because the grid operator cannot reliably see, dispatch, or verify resources without them.
Once those systems exist, additional market products become easier to introduce. For Greek technology and energy-service providers, this could expand the addressable market for related services. Industrial customers would need SCADA interfaces, controllers, communications equipment, energy-management software, and integration between onsite assets and distribution-system requirements.
The commercial opportunity may shift from selling another rooftop photovoltaic installation toward controlling the entire industrial energy system. Solar generation, factory demand, EV charging, and other flexible loads could be operated as a single portfolio whose behaviour changes according to electricity prices and network requirements. Greece’s 400-kW remote-control threshold is presented as more than a compliance rule.
The development is framed as part of an electricity system where large industrial customers are digitally visible and controllable rather than passive endpoints of the distribution network. This is described as a foundation if Greece later chooses to create commercial markets around local flexibility.