HEDNO: Launching the 1st cycle of the Switch On Innovation Lab for energy and the networks

On Thursday, 9 May 2019, 18:00, the Administration of the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network (HEDNO) held HEDNO’s 1st meeting of Switch_On Innovation Lab for energy and the networks.

The meeting was joined by the 5 teams selected for the 1st cycle: Community Energy River (CER), Sense, eNVy Softworks, 4cast, Pragma—IoT.

HEDNO’s Chairman and EMP Professor Nikos Chatziargyriou as well as HEDNO’s Deputy CEO Athanasios Misdanitis oth welcomed all participants on behalf of the company. HEDNO was also represented by Konstantinos Agathakis, General Manager of Support Operations, Iraklis Menegatos, General Manager of Network Development and Operation, Yorgos Papoutsis, Manager of the Network Directorate, Yorgos Hatzipavlou, Manager of the Modernization, Innovation, Quality and Data Safety Directorate.

The meeting included a presentation of the Switch_On Innovation Lab and the methodology of acceleration, the programme as well as the services that provide support for the teams. The meeting was presented by Yorgos Karamanolis, CTO/CIO, Co-founder of Crowdpolicy and Spiros Kapetanakis, lean expert and partner of Crowdpolicy.

The kick-off event also featured the objectives and the strategy of the programme, its structure, the role of the mentors and the mechanisms for their support, the proposed programme as well as the tools that will be used for successful communication and collaboration as part of the Switch_On innovation lab. The presentation was followed by a creative discussion.

The programme aims to help specialized teams of engineers outside the organization to be able to answer and propose solutions to specific needs of HEDNO through the implementation of pilot solutions and the use of emerging technologies. Switch_On Innovation Lab has been structured in order to improve these specific solutions that have been selected. The collaboration and co-creation between the teams/companies participating in Switch_On Innovation Lab and HEDNO is the key concept behind the programme. HEDNO will support the teams throughout the duration of the lab with targeted mentoring by HEDNO’s specialized executives and Crowdpolicy will ensure that successful ideas will develop into Proof of Concepts (PoCs) with the use of lean and agile methodologies.

More photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/eX5civkAvu96SN4q9