Cisco has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Italian energy technology company Gridspertise to develop and deploy digital innovations in electricity grids.

The MoU is a collaborative framework that leverages both Cisco’s and Gridspertise’s technological and business expertise. A component of this partnership is the creation of a joint centre of competence, which will focus on integrating existing technologies and developing new ones to address current and future challenges in the electricity market.

This partnership reaffirms Gridspertise’s approach to expanding its product and service offerings and extending its global reach through collaborations with top-tier technology partners. Additionally, it enhances Cisco’s strategy for the utility sector, which emphasises innovation and ecosystem collaboration. The centre of competence will play a pivotal role in serving the global utility market, fostering an environment of continuous innovation and collaboration.

“Utilities worldwide are on the path to an energy and sustainable transition and our role is to support them by helping the ecosystem grow and developing digital technologies that enable electrification, new models of energy production and consumption, and the increasing use of renewable sources,” said Gianmatteo Manghi, CEO of Cisco in Italy. “The agreement with Gridspertise and the creation of the joint centre of competence represent important opportunities to accelerate on this global transition.”

Robert Denda, CEO of Gridspertise, added: “We are enthusiastic to partner with Cisco to create a smarter, more sustainable energy future. This agreement is an important step in advancing the digitalisation of the energy system. With cyber security, artificial intelligence and the internet of things playing increasingly vital roles, our digital combinations will help utilities worldwide improve the resiliency, efficiency and flexibility of their power grids, enabling them to more easily integrate renewable energy and meet evolving customer needs.”

Cisco and Gridspertise are collaborating to develop innovations that incorporate Cisco products and technologies into Gridspertise’s offerings. This includes a study of possible integrations between some of the current products of the two companies, such as a version of Gridspertise’s Quantum Edge device (www.gridspertise.com/solutions/networkspertise/qed) with an integrated Cisco router, allowing users to continue using Cisco telecommunications in smart grid environments. Additional areas of development include digitalisation technologies tailored to electricity distribution networks and the creation of options for virtualising secondary substations within the distribution network.

Under the agreement, Cisco (www.cisco.com) and Gridspertise will study joint go-to-market actions targeting the global utility market. By combining Cisco’s footprint with Gridspertise’s expertise in developing technology for the digital and sustainable energy transition, the joint centre of competence will leverage their respective strengths and resources to increase impact.

Gridspertise (www.gridspertise.com) offers grid intelligent devices, end-to-end cloud-edge platforms and services to accelerate the digital transformation of electricity distribution grids. Gridspertise is headquartered in Italy with subsidiaries and local offices in Spain, Germany, Romania, Nordic countries, Brazil, India and USA. In 2023 Gridspertise acquired Aidon, a specialist in smart metering in the Nordics and funded the joint venture Neugemacht, offering end-to-end metering services to the German market. Gridspertise has offices in 11 countries worldwide, employing more than 500 people.