To arrive at detailed insights about cooperation decisions an in-depth analysis of the application cases was conducted12, by doing so the crucial decision criteria were investigated and highlighted. The relative importance of decision criteria varies with the field of cooperation that is evaluated, for example, for smart metering, different factors appear to be of importance, whereas for network operation other factors come into play. In addition, stakeholders have their own focus regarding the importance of specific criteria (e.g. for DSOs exerting control on an ICT network that is used for grid operation is of great importance13).