Energy security has moved up the agenda fast. For Eurelectric, the federation representing 3,500 electric utilities across 34 European countries, it is now one of the defining priorities for the sector alongside industrial competitiveness and digitalisation.

Kris Van den Zegel, Head of Business Development and Stakeholders at Eurelectric, makes the case that the threat landscape for power infrastructure has fundamentally changed. Energy security is no longer a luxury, he argues. It is a minimum requirement. Eurelectric’s recent report, Battle Tested Power Systems, sets out what that means in practice for the sector as a whole.

One of the most concrete sources of insight comes from Ukraine. Eurelectric’s member DTEK has been defending its infrastructure under sustained attack, and the lessons from that experience are directly transferable. The expertise exists. The answers are there. The question is whether the rest of the sector is paying attention.

On digitalisation, Kris points to AI as a significant opportunity to address bottlenecks that have historically slowed electrification. Eurelectric is currently developing a flagship report on the impact of AI on the power sector, due over the next eighteen months.

Watch the video to hear Kris’s full perspective on where the sector stands and what Eurelectric is focused on.