European Workshop Week 2025

The 9^th European Workshop Week in Barcelona brought together over 250 participants, from more than 100 companies, 21 countries, including grid operators, generation operators, utilities, EPRI experts, and regional stakeholders. The event focused on applying the latest findings from leading projects and defining collaborative responses to the energy transition challenges.

The first day featured sessions on innovation, SMART Targets, hydrogen and and EPRI initiatives like DCFlex and Project Mercury. Discussions on GHG target setting, transition planning, and climate risk assessment provided insights from Nordea, Iberdrola Renewables, and PSE. The workshop on integrating data centers into the grid emphasized collaboration and regulatory challenges together with RTE, Google and Schneider.

The second day continued with workshops on industrial electrification and decarbonization, focusing on efficiency, electrification, and combined cycle resources with input from ENEL. The Future Network Toolkit session highlighted software applications and data needs for managing transmission networks with input from Svenksa Kraftnat and Tennet. The wind power session addressed technical challenges and integration with storage solutions with RWE, Naturgy and AGL (from Australia!). The distribution resiliency workshop covered strategies for weather and cyber events, and customer demand flexibility sessions explored opportunities and challenges in demand-side flexibility with input from ESB and Energinet. 

The final day included sessions on improving PV system reliability and performance (Lightsource, Enel), hydropower modernization with Iberdrola, and the control center of the future. Discussions on maintaining grid stability with high inverter-based resource penetration highlighted operating experience from Terna. The AI@EPRI session showcased EPRI's leading-edge research on AI applications in the energy sector, including the recently launched Open AI Consortium.