Welcome and Introduction

For more than two decades, Norway has been steadily building a marketplace for electric transport. Having started out with inexpensive short-range electric cars and household charging sockets, Norway has now moved to mass-market solutions where fast charging (DC) and grid balancing (AC) plays an ever more vital role. With more than 1,000,000 electric cars and over 10,000 fast chargers in a relatively small market, Norway offers a rare early view of large-scale electrification. Over the past decade, electric cars have seen substantial improvements, which is now making it easier for new markets to advance electrification. At the same time, Norway has to deal with challenges years before other markets do. Yet despite different starting points, we can see that most markets are facing the same core challenges. From grid-smart charging strategies to innovative business models, there are excellent examples of best practices emerging elsewhere in Europe. What will the next thing in electrification be, both in mature and in emerging markets? And what will be possible when the right people and companies come together, sharing knowledge, solving common problems and accelerating the shift to cleaner mobility?

While predictive maintenance has become a well-known concept in battery energy storage, the next step is predictive operation. This approach aims not only to prevent failures, but also to continuously optimize system operation in real time. The goal is to maximize the performance, efficiency and lifetime of the existing hardware in each specific use case. Predictive operation extends beyond the battery cells themselves: Adaptive thermal management, intelligent inverter control and optimal coordination of power electronics all play a crucial role. By anticipating system behavior under different operating scenarios, predictive operation enables asset owners and operators to extract greater value from their storage systems while improving reliability and integration with renewable generation. This session will highlight the latest methods, control strategies and demonstration results that bring predictive operation from research into practice.

This session highlights their growing role in grid stability, including grid-forming, voltage control, congestion management and system support across transmission and distribution networks.

This session brings together regulators, grid operators and developers to discuss how the system currently works and where it is heading.

From the UK to Italy and Bulgaria, this session highlights the policies, business models, and financing strategies powering Europe’s most dynamic storage markets.