It’s clear that society stands on the precipice of a new technological era driven by data and AI. While there’s much to consider about how this will shape our future, one of the most instructive approaches is to look to the past. History teaches us that in every industrial revolution, the regions that thrived had access to one crucial resource: the energy needed to power breakthrough technologies—whether wood, water, coal, oil, nuclear, gas, or today’s renewables and storage.
AI adoption is accelerating rapidly. In 2023, 63% of energy companies worldwide reported using AI to optimize operations (Source: PwC). Europe leads globally, hosting 32% of AI energy projects, followed closely by North America at 28% (Source: Capgemini). While we’re still in the early stages of energy sector use cases, significant questions around reliability, safety, ethics, and privacy are being addressed as innovations are tested to realize AI’s potential value in the sector.
For EPRI, AI Is been more than hype: We’ve been working on it for over a decade, long before ChatGPT made headlines. We’ve launched more than 70 projects aimed at improving grid management, fortifying cybersecurity, and optimizing energy generation. EPRI is providing industry leadership by translating innovation into real-world impact through projects like aLLarMa, an AI tool to understand complex alarms in grid control centers; AI-EFFECT, a sandbox to test AI concepts for deployment with grid operators; and agentic AI applications for transmission planning, among others.
Simultaneously, a global coalition of utilities is working with data center stakeholders to address how the grid can be developed quickly and sustainably to power the data centers now central to our economy. The DC Flex project is addressing the gap between deployment speed and connection speed that sits on the critical path to AI development. This balance between technological excitement and rigorous testing is crucial, countering AI hype with tangible, measurable benefits.
As the AI imperative emerges, Europe’s energy security and climate challenges continue to test our energy systems. Rapid decarbonization, supply diversification, resilient grid expansion, and urgent deployment of dispatchable resources are increasingly pressing, driving research concepts beyond demonstration pilots into full deployment.
The energy and economic transition depends on our ability to deliver smarter, cleaner, and more resilient energy systems faster than ever before. Against this backdrop, the EPRI European Workshop Week 2025 will convene in Barcelona, Spain, more than 200 attendees from 90 companies across 28 countries, sharing knowledge and insights to address Europe’s most critical challenges ahead. We must act efficiently and collaboratively to achieve this era-shaping goal—a challenge that EPRI was born to address.
