Enlit Europe 2025: Three Signals Define The Grid’s Next Decade

After three days at Enlit Europe in Bilbao, it was clear that the electricity sector knows its direction for the next few years – but is still struggling to close the gap from ambition and technology availability to execution. The annual gathering, which brings together the electricity industry’s utilities, technology providers, policymakers and innovators, saw hundreds of exhibitors ranging from utilities to software providers to equipment manufacturers. Across sessions and informal conversations, three themes kept resurfacing with striking consistency, offering an impression of the collective mindset of the sector today:

• The industry urgently needs to rethink how projects are connected to the grid.
  Connection queues, and the urgency to overhaul how they are managed, dominated discussions, especially with the growing recognition that the way we manage access to the grid is no longer fit for purpose. The shift from ‘first come, first served’ to ‘first ready, first served’ is seen as essential, and this idea resonates strongly with both utilities and developers. Microsoft highlighted how maps, data platforms, AI-driven planning, digital twins and even AI-assisted permitting can shorten connection timelines dramatically, which is essential when demand for capacity is rising exponentially. It’s not just about better processing of the backlog, but also about fundamentally redesigning how the queue works so that readiness and maturity of a project actually matter. One message I heard several times was the ambition to ‘make edge participation default’, meaning every new connection should inherently be capable of interacting with the grid dynamically, offering flexibility from the start rather than as an added layer later. Dynamic pricing was cited as a way to reward those who help and to nudge participation without overtly ‘punishing’ those who do not. The underlying issue, though, remains trust and communication. A flexibility expert at Kraken noted that “only 5% of assets that could support the grid are actually doing it”, illustrating how lack of awareness, scepticism toward utilities and the belief that DR requests aren’t in customers’ best interest hold back the potential of demand-side flexibility.
• Real-time visibility of the grid is becoming the foundation for meaningful flexibility.
  The trust challenge intersects directly with another recurring theme: grid monitoring. While the industry has developed sophisticated tools for flexibility management, dispatching DERs, forecasting and optimization, their full value is impossible to unlock without precise, real-time understanding of what is happening across the network. In several demos and technical sessions, the emphasis was the same: transformer performance, feeder line conditions, fault detection and dynamic line ratings are becoming foundational. The more accurately operators can see what capacity exists – or is about to exist – the more confidently they can enable two-way flows, integrate new resources and squeeze the most out of the infrastructure we already have. Multiple speakers stressed that we finally have the digital capabilities to manage distributed flexibility effectively; what we need next is pervasive visibility so decisions aren’t based on assumptions but on live system states. It is this layer of intelligence that transforms flexibility from an interesting concept into a dependable operational tool that reduces risk, mitigates congestion, and accelerates the ability to connect new loads and generation.
• Software will ease the transition but won’t replace the need for grid infrastructure.
  Even with improved queue management and better monitoring, one message landed with clarity: software alone will not solve the capacity crunch. “We won’t get there with software only; hardware is still needed and we have underinvested in recent years. Software and flex-first is the priority now to reduce hardware needs, but three years from now it will have to be ‘build, build, and build’.” This view seemed universal across the event. Flexibility is a bridge – it buys time, increases resilience and stretches existing assets further – but it is not a replacement for physical infrastructure. The sector is on the brink of the largest grid build-out in decades, and while no one wants to overbuild, everyone agrees that underbuilding isn’t an option either. The temporary relief that flexibility provides is crucial, especially during the transition, but it cannot absorb the long-term growth in electrification, renewable generation, heat pumps, EV charging and industry decarbonization.

Walking the exhibition floor, the scale of available technology was impossible to ignore, with organizations showcasing hardware, software, power electronics, sensors, digital twins, storage and advanced equipment. The ecosystem is ready. What still needs to align is the system around it: investment in grid infrastructure at the right scale, consumer engagement that builds trust, and legislation that reinforces what the entire sector already knows must happen.

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