Greece has introduced a requirement for self-consumers with photovoltaic installations above 400 kW connected to the interconnected system to install remote monitoring and remote-control equipment. The deadline for compliance was Sept. 15, following an eight-month compliance period set by distribution operator HEDNO. The scope also includes 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. For now, 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.
Visibility and controllability for behind-the-meter solar
Industrial rooftop and behind-the-meter solar generation has been brought into the distribution operator’s digital control perimeter through infrastructure that could support flexible industrial demand markets. Facilities that previously operated onsite solar largely as a private asset reducing electricity purchases can become visible and technically controllable from the distribution-system level. This changes how industrial self-generation relates to the grid.
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 alter power flows on a local network, particularly when industrial demand falls while solar output remains high. Remote monitoring is positioned as the mechanism for providing that visibility.
Remote control provides an additional capability by giving the network operator a way to manage production when required. The immediate effect may be increased curtailment capability rather than a new revenue stream for factories. The same communications infrastructure could later be used for more sophisticated services.
Potential use of factory flexibility once generation is remotely managed
With remote measurement and control of industrial-site generation, it becomes technically easier to combine solar output with flexible production loads and other controllable equipment under a common energy-management system. The equipment listed includes electric boilers, refrigeration, EV charging, and other flexible assets. An aggregator could then potentially optimise the entire factory connection rather than managing only one generation asset.
The source describes an example where a factory produces 1 MW from rooftop solar while consuming 3 MW. In that case, the valuable grid service may not involve shutting down the solar installation. Instead, it could involve increasing factory consumption when local solar output is high or reducing electricity use later when system conditions tighten.
This approach is described as turning the factory connection into a flexibility asset. The emerging architecture is also said to support flexible grid connections by allowing a DSO to offer connection capacity subject to agreed operating limits rather than reinforcing local networks whenever projects reach their theoretical maximums. Customers accepting remote control or automated demand management could obtain faster or cheaper connections in exchange for flexibility during constrained periods.
No automatic payments tied to remote access
The remote-control requirement does not itself create a commercial market for such services. There is no automatic payment to industrial self-consumers solely because HEDNO can remotely monitor or control their installations. The technical prerequisite is described as being built through telemetry, communications, and controllability.
Without those capabilities, local flexibility markets are described as remaining largely theoretical because grid operators cannot reliably see, dispatch, or verify resources. Once those systems exist, additional market products become easier to introduce. For Greek technology and energy-service providers, this could expand the addressable market.
Industrial customers are expected to require SCADA interfaces, controllers, communications equipment, energy-management software, and integration between onsite assets and distribution-system requirements. Future aggregators could build on the same infrastructure. The commercial opportunity described in the source shifts from selling another rooftop photovoltaic installation toward controlling an entire industrial energy system.
In that model, 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 technical compliance rule. It is described as another step toward an electricity system where large industrial customers become digitally visible and controllable energy nodes rather than passive endpoints of the distribution network.