Enlit Europe 2024 Congress
Enlit Europe 2024 Congress calls for energy transition as a key factor in European competitiveness
Energy transition, essential to Europe’s competitiveness, requires stable regulatory frameworks, strong investment on grids, and must harness the potential of digital transformation and Artificial Intelligence (AI). These are Iberdrola's main conclusions at the Enlit 2024 Congress, held on 23 and 24 October at the Fiera Milano. The event aims to connect industries to promote the change of energy model towards a sustainable solution.
At Iberdrola Group, we consider grids to be a key factor both for the electrification of the economy.
What is Enlit?
Enlit is a global forum dedicated to addressing all aspects of the energy transition. Enlit Europe is the year’s main event and its location changes within the continent. In 2022, it will be held in Frankfurt, in 2023 in Paris, in 2024 in Milan, and in 2025 in Bilbao.
The last forum focused on the need to keep power grids in perfect condition to prevent power losses. It was attended by more than 14,000 people, as well as more than 300 speakers and 750 exhibitors. The aim behind the event is to bring together companies to connect and generate synergies. Presentations are given that showcase new technologies that may change the industry in the near future. The main topics are digitalisation, decarbonisation and an environmentally sustainable energy transition.
The congress is not the only event organised by the forum, which also puts together lectures and online classes to apply new methodologies. They also publish a newsletter and an annual guide with the year’s major advances.
Progress on the smart grid
Telecommunications trends and applications in the smart grid.
Electrical substations
Find out what electrical substations are and how they work.
The road to smart grids
A global transition to a green grid powered by renewables.
High, medium and low voltage
Discover their different peculiarities and uses.
Iberdrola at the Enlit Europe 2024 Congress
In 2024, Enlit held its event at the Milan Fair on 23 and 24 October. An estimated 15,000 attendees, 700 exhibitors and 450 people participated in the Congress, in which Iberdrola was present. Several senior executives of our company have drawn some key conclusions from the event to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, clean and efficient model:
Electrification is essential to promote industrialisation, which requires major investments in networks
In a panel about sustainability and competitiveness, Ana Lafuente, Networks Global Director, argued that the best way to promote Europe’s industrialization is electrification, which requires a significant network investment increase. Lafuente added that such investment is key to the stability and reliability of supply, enabling the integration of renewable energy and ensuring that electricity reaches all customers efficiently and safely.
Regulatory certainty is paramount to re-booting the energy transition
Álvaro Ryan, Regulation director at i-DE, explained that regulatory certainty is paramount to re-booting the energy transition, alongside the removal of barriers such as investment limits and excessive permitting, and the promotion of anticipatory investments. In a roundtable dedicated to regulation, Ryan said regulatory frameworks should also adapt to new types of investment, particularly in digital and innovation areas.
Digitalization offers great opportunities to enhance quality of service
Marta Solaz, Business Information Security Officer at i-DE, stressed the importance of providing excellent service to customers and meet Net Zero commitments. However, risks should not be underplayed, namely cyber threats. A complex and more digitalized network increases the attack surface. Utilities must prioritize securing their processes, including supply chain (a potential backdoor for cyberattacks) by using control mechanisms that will reduce risk and protect their critical infrastructure and the service delivered to their customers.
In 2025, the event will be held in Bilbao and the Bilbao Exhibition Centre has already been confirmed as the venue. For Iberdrola, this is a unique opportunity because we need to increase investment in electricity grids to make the energy transition possible.
"For more than two decades, Iberdrola has been leading the transition towards a secure, competitive and fully decarbonised energy system through electrification. This model is driving more and more industrialization, jobs and social progress every day. We look forward to seeing you all in Bilbao on the occasion of the Enlit Europe 2025."
Ignacio S. Galán
Executive Chairman of Iberdrola
The importance of grids in the energy transition
At Iberdrola Group, we consider grids to be a key factor both for the electrification of the economy and for the revitalisation of the territories we work in. We consider regulated assets –together with renewable energies–to be keys to our strategy.
A total of 85% of investments in grids are aimed at markets with closed frameworks for the coming years and 80% of the gross profit from this business is protected from inflation and interest rates. These investments will enable us to increase the asset base to EUR 54 billion by 2026, EUR 12 billion more than in 2023 and 38% more than in 2022.
We already operate one of the world's largest distribution systems, with more than 1.3 million kilometres of distribution and transmission lines, over 4,500 substations and more than 1.6 million transformers, built and operated to provide high quality and reliable service to more than 33.67 million electricity supply points.
At Iberdrola, we continue to work on the modernisation, digitalisation and automation of grids as key to improving the quality of the distribution system and guaranteeing the massive incorporation of renewables in the near future, as well as to promote the electrification of mobility, buildings and industry. At the same time, we promote jobs in electricity grids as a growing area with enormous potential for various professional profiles.
At Enlit we have the opportunity to meet with the key agents in the ecosystem for the electrification of the economy, essential for the integration of renewables, sustainable mobility and self-consumption.