Meet us in Paris at SGT26 - Smart Grid Forum

Smart Grid Forum SGT26 is one of Europe’s leading conferences on digital grid transformation, bringing together more than 500 utility leaders, grid operators, and technology experts and over 50 exhibitors, to discuss the future of modern energy systems.   The three-day event is held from 24 to 26 March 2026 in Paris and features strategic plenary sessions and deep dive technical case studies. Its program covers key modernization topics such as digital substations, SCADA innovations, smart metering, OT cybersecurity, energy storage, and renewable integration.  

We, as part of the Elia Group, are happily announcing that 5 of our colleagues from 50Hertz and Elia are speaking at this year’s SGT. Find out who speaks when about what in the overview below.  

For more information: SGT26 - Smart Grid Forums
Link to the conference agenda: Conference - Smart Grid Forums


Tues. 24.03. at 11:10am 

Arya Fazilat, Digitalisation of System Operations – 50Hertz 

Together with  

Torsten Röglin, Managing Director - Stadtwerke Frankfurt, Jan Petráček, Chief Transformation Officer - ČEZ Distribuce, Lucian Balea, Deputy Head of R&D – RTE and  Jonas van den Bogaard, Digital Strategy Lead – Alliander   

About: Driving innovation through utility-supplier & investor partnership models that introduce new technical solutions to emerging grid modernization challenges whilst mitigating risk and preserving supplier autonomy, agility and innovation. 


Wed. 25.03. at 08:45am 

Thomas Sterckx, Virtual Substations Expert – Elia 

About: IEC 61850 - top-down engineering in practice: Elia’s journey from concept to configuration. 


Wed. 25.03. at 11:45am 

Herman Carstens, Innovation Manager, Digital – Elia 

About: AI & LLMs - implementing large language models to enhance human & machine collaboration and drive speed of decision making and problem solving in the control room of the future Herman Carstens,  


Thu. 26.03. at 09:15am 

Ralf Heisig, Product Lead Future Product Development – 50 Hertz 

About: Applying smart controls, storage, advanced inverters, flexible designs, and plant-level hybridization at renewable generation sites to significantly reduce the negative effects of intermittency  


Thu. 26.03. at 2:30pm

Maissaa Rharrab, Product Owner Panoptic – 50Hertz  

About: Integrating digital twin and cybersecurity for enhanced situational awareness in critical electrical substations.