As societies strive to decarbonize and electrify, the backbone of this transition, the grid, faces unprecedented challenges. On the one hand, the rapid growth of renewable energy calls for massive grid expansion and reinforcement. On the other, success depends on more than technical capacity: it requires infrastructure acceptance, resilient planning and security in the face of climate extremes, geopolitical uncertainty, evolving patterns of demand and generation, and technological advances. Addressing these issues demands fresh thinking and collaboration across disciplines. This is why Etch brought together researchers, system operators, and industry leaders for the Second Annual Belgian Energy Transition Workshop: Shaping the Future Grid – Challenges in Control, Security, and Planning.
Key takeaways
The Second Annual Belgian Energy Transition Workshop made clear that the future grid will not be built by technology alone. Its success depends on three interconnected dimensions:
- Acceptance: new technologies for reinforcement and expansion must be technically feasible, economically viable, and socially supported.
- Security: as HVDC becomes central grid infrastructure, reliability demands new protection standards and smarter control strategies.
- Planning: uncertainty from climate change, renewables, and geopolitics requires risk-aware planning and control and adaptive regulation.
Etch, the Energy Transmission Competence Hub, convened researchers, system operators, and industry leaders to debate these challenges and showcase emerging solutions.
Infrastructure acceptance and grid security
The morning parallel sessions set the tone. One track focused on infrastructure acceptance, showing how technical, economic, and social factors are inseparable. Discussions ranged from the impact of electrolyzers in industrial grids to the technical complexities of underground cables and the uncertainties in modelling different characteristics of transmission assets.
The second track addressed grid security, stressing the importance of probabilistic reliability assessment that better captures risks than traditional deterministic methods, while noting the challenge of applying them in practice. Other contributions highlighted the need for standardization of HVDC measuring and protection devices and explored strategies for cost-effective placement of high-voltage direct current circuit breakers. These insights underscored the operational challenges of an increasingly complex grid shaped by renewable variability and geopolitical uncertainty.
Interoperability challenges
In his keynote, RTE’s Xavier Bourgeat pointed to the difficulties of ensuring interoperability as Europe’s transmission systems become ever more interconnected. Aligning technologies, systems, and operational practices across borders will remain one of the defining challenges for TSOs.
Future-oriented system design
The afternoon debates turned to the design of tomorrow’s electricity systems. The “To Grid Form or Not to Grid Form” session examined how far grid-forming technologies could and should shape system stability in a converter-dominated world. Contributions explored EMT-based modelling, dynamic support through HVDC links with modular multilevel converters, and methods to enhance small signal stability. The discussions focused on internal control strategies for grid-forming systems.
At the same time, the resilient planning track zoomed in on one of the toughest questions: how do we prepare our grids for the unexpected? From extreme weather to geopolitical shocks, the risks are real. Speakers showed how sustainability and resilience are two sides of the same coin, sometimes reinforcing each other, sometimes pulling in different directions. They shared strategies to prepare for offshore wind farm shut downs during severe storms and presented new planning tools that help operators act with greater confidence in the face of uncertainty. The takeaway was clear: resilience can’t be an afterthought. It has to be woven into planning, regulation, and research from the very beginning if our grids are to withstand what lies ahead.
Etch as catalyst
Across all sessions, panel discussions highlighted the urgency of planning for uncertainty, the need to bridge technical progress with societal engagement, and the recognition that no single solution will suffice. Innovations in hardware, software, and governance must be combined and aligned with public trust. By bringing together academia, industry, and system operators, Etch reaffirmed its role as a catalyst for dialogue and innovation in the energy transmission field. The path to a clean, secure, and resilient grid is complex, but the foundation is being laid through shared expertise and collaboration.
