Recording of Wednesday, May 07, 2025 | The smarter E Europe Conferences 2025 | Conference Program | Language: English | Duration: 10:12 .

Global Electricity Demand to Surge 80% by 2040, Highlighting Need for Integrated Grid Investments and Reliability Improvements

The transcript features a discussion led by Dr. Anser A. Shakoor, focusing on the evolving electricity demand and associated challenges for power systems globally. He highlights that according to IEA's scenarios, global electricity demand is expected to rise significantly—by about 80% by 2040—due to various factors across different economies. This increase underscores the importance of electrification as an enabler of economic growth and decarbonization in other energy sectors. Dr. Shakoor emphasizes key challenges such as ensuring reliability and security within electricity systems while maintaining affordability and meeting climate targets through integrated technologies efficiently. He explains that achieving high system reliability requires minimizing interruptions significantly, which poses substantial demands on current infrastructure. He also points out disparities in electricity prices between regions like Europe versus the U.S., affecting industrial competitiveness due to higher costs in Europe. Moreover, he discusses how transmission systems have evolved with significant changes both from supply (renewables) and demand sides but notes insufficient investment focus on grid networks compared to renewables over recent years—a gap hindering energy transition efforts. To address these issues comprehensively, GE Vernova plans to launch PlanOS—a solution offering holistic planning for entire power systems including generation expansion planning, reliability assessment, production cost simulation among others—to facilitate robust integration necessary for future needs amidst rising demands.

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Speaker

Dr. Anser A. Shakoor
Executive Leader
GE Vernova
United Kingdom

Talk of session: Tackling Transmission and High-Capacity Connection Challenges

Grid planners face the complex challenge of transmitting energy from emerging renewable generation hubs to demand centers, while also addressing the growing need for high-capacity connections for storage plants, electrolyzers, and data centers. These developments present significant challenges for grid planners, grid operators, service providers and project developers. This session will explore the technical, regulatory, and logistical hurdles involved in managing these demands and examine innovative solutions to ensure reliable, efficient grid integration and future-proof energy systems. It also discusses the importance of system planning and examines how different stakeholders can contribute to optimization efforts that enable better prioritization of investments and the achievement of European goals.

Further Talks of this session:

Welcome and Introduction

Speaker

Dr. Andrzej Ceglarz
Director Energy Systems
Renewables Grid Initiative
Germany

To Talk

Grid Planning Optimization: How to Save Resources and Deliver on Targets

Speaker

Dr. Alexandre Oudalov
Manager Power Systems of the Future
Hitachi Energy Germany AG
Germany

To Talk

The Value of BESS as a Transmission Asset (SATA) for the Power System

Speaker

Dr. Sankara Subramanian
Utility Market Leader
Saft Batteries
France

To Talk

Evaluation of the Economic Surplus Generated by the European Balancing Platforms

Speaker

Dr. Dominik Schlipf
Team Manager System Balance
TransnetBW GmbH
Germany

To Talk

Advantages and Challenges of Balancing Power Cooperation With a Focus on Fcr Cooperation

Speaker

Matthias Kuring
Senior Expert Balancing Concepts
50Hertz Transmission
Germany

To Talk

Panel Discussion

Speaker

To Talk

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