Podcast - Mirko Pracht & Walter Geelen on Powering the Future

In this podcast, Mirko Pracht from 50Hertz and Walter Geelen from Elia join Mandana White from Smart Grid Forum on her Podcast Powering the Future to discuss the daytoday reality of the energy transition for European TSOs—and how Elia Group is addressing these challenges with cooperation and digitalization.

The Core Challenge: Navigating the Energy Trilemma

Delivering the energy transition means balancing three essential goals:

Clean and green energy
Secure and reliable energy
Affordable energy

This trilemma is becoming harder to manage as grids grow more dynamic and volatile. New market participants – such as largescale battery operators – are emerging, and both industry (e.g. data centers) and households (e.g. electric vehicles) continue to electrify. At the same time, renewable generation is rising sharply: today, renewables make up roughly 35% of Belgium’s and nearly 60% of Germany’s total power mix.

Raising the Bar for Digital Products in Control Centers

With increasing infeed of renewables and new emerging challenges such as voltage control and stability management, control centers need new digital products that are fast, adaptable, and built for uninterrupted 24/7 operation. To meet these needs, components must evolve quickly, deploy efficiently, and maintain strong stability at all times. This is why innovation, flexibility, and robustness are central principles for the new generation of control center systems such as Modular Control Center System (MCCS).

A Collaborative Approach Across Europe

To strengthen grid operations across Europe, we aim to set new benchmarks for crossregional collaboration. Key questions guide our approach:

How do we design digital products that deliver real value?
How do we develop and deploy solutions for control centers quickly and efficiently?
How can TSOs learn from one another and how can they work together on similar challenges instead of developing individual solutions for shared problems?
An open source mindset is key. By developing and improving software together, we can create solutions that are more powerful, more resilient, more futureproof, and more importantly they are more affordable for the TSOs, the consumer and the energy system as a whole.

Listen to the Full Episode

Podcast Episode: Powering the Future – Episode 48: Running the Grid in the Renewable Era

Timestamps

0:00 – Intro
0:33 – Welcome & Introduction of Mirko Pracht & Walter Geelen
2:30 – The impact of the energy transition and renewable integration on grid operations
4:25 – About the MCCS
10:20 – Collaboration ambitions across regions
14:30 – Outlook toward SGT 2026