AI in Europe’s energy sector – working towards a common understanding
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Two initiatives are under way towards developing a common understanding on the role and potential of AI in Europe’s grids and energy sector more broadly.
These are a position paper from ETIP SNET on unlocking the potential of AI and generative AI in smart grids, which is scheduled to appear in early April, and from the European Commission’s DG Energy a roadmap on digitalisation and AI in the energy sector, which is due to be published in early 2026.
In a workshop to inform and seek input from stakeholders, Luis Vale Cunha, Chairman of ETIP SNET and Director of European Policies and Projects at Portuguese DSO E-REDES, outlined the aim of the paper as being a guide for unlocking the potential of AI and generative AI in Europe’s grids.
Commenting that AI has been implemented in the energy sector for a while but that generative AI is now emerging, Cunha highlighted the role of digitalisation, saying that “digitalisation will depend a lot on the implementation of AI” with the new opportunities and challenges it is bringing.
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He also said a coordinated sector-wide effort is needed for the cost efficient and sustainable adoption of AI and to leverage it to meet Europe’s climate and industrial goals.
Turning to the paper itself, Cunha said the intention is to get as wide input as possible, with the drafting team currently some 40 people strong – around half of them from outside the ETIP SNET community.
Broadly it consists of six sections – an introduction, reviews of EU and national policies and regulations on AI and GenAI, technologies, use cases and best practices in smart grids, the benefits and challenges, and a roadmap and recommendations for implementation.
Key legislation highlighted includes the Green Deal, which underlies the EU’s climate ambitions, and the recently implemented AI Act governing its use.
Some AI use cases cited include forecasting, pattern recognition and the development of grid foundational models and while the benefits extend to areas such as grid optimisation and improved cybersecurity, technical challenges such as data quality and societal challenges such as ethics and privacy also exist.
The draft roadmap considers short, medium and long term actions including developing the foundational tools and data infrastructure and scaling solutions and pilots for grid management and renewable integration with a foundation, collaboration, innovation layered approach.
Among the conclusions highlighted is that the AI Act has many implications on the implementation of AI in smart grids.
Needs identified include an implementation framework, expertise and infrastructure in areas such as data and cybersecurity and not least strategic investment and more research and innovation.
Closing the presentations on the draft report Cunha said that version 1.0 is now being distributed to interested stakeholders for input and insights to feed into a version 2.0 for release and input around mid-March, which in turn will be used for preparation of the final version in April.
Cunha is keen for participation from any interested persons both to the drafting team and in the form of comments.
He also invites input on use cases, pilot implementations and good practices for the relevant chapter and vendor solutions and companies working on AI are invited for a vendor directory.
Roadmap on digitalisation and AI
In a short presentation in the workshop and a first on the proposed roadmap on digitalisation and AI, Stavros Stamatoukos, Policy Officer at DG Energy, commented that the the EU grid digitalisation action plan has limited mention of AI as its release just preceded the launch of ChatGPT.
With the new Commission has come this new mandate towards the use of digital tools and AI in the energy system.
“The objective is to accelerate the deployment of AI in the energy system as a whole, preferably European AI,” he said, suggesting five broad areas for the roadmap to address.
These are ‘pre-deployment’ covering areas such as funding and innovation, ‘deployment’ covering areas such as policy measures and piloting, ‘potential risks and challenges’ such as data centres and improving algorithm efficiencies, ‘intrinsic risks’ including cybersecurity and data security, and ‘horizontal aspects’ such as governance and coordination.
“This is a very important document for us,” he added, saying that a public consultation is due to be launched soon to refine its focus and gain input from the sector.
“We need sharp and focussed messages and recommendations that can be translated into actions – not simply a generic statement such as alignment of regulation.”
Commenting also on the need for the state of the art on AI, particularly on GenAI with the fast pace of its development, he reminded that the grids are a critical infrastructure and security is the top priority.
“We will not take any risk in prioritising adoption of non-secure technologies over the reliability of our energy system.”
Originally published on enlit.world
