Etch brings industry and researchers together to design the transmission grid of the future

The energy transition is not only about solar panels, wind turbines, or batteries. The transmission grid needs to evolve as well. The grid will need to carry more electricity over longer distances, the system will become more complex, and underground high-power transmission is moving higher up the agenda. While this may sound like a logical sequence of events, its technical execution is far from straightforward.

“The shift towards more renewable energy and new energy flows also means we need more grid infrastructure,” says Dirk Van Hertem, Professor of Power Systems at EnergyVille/KU Leuven and Director of the Etch competence hub. “One of the big challenges in that transition is underground high-power transmission. That is why we founded Etch.”

He is careful not to tie Etch too closely to one specific project, even if one of them did provide an important trigger. “In a sense, Ventilus is part of why we exist,” he says. “That whole debate was the moment we said: we need to get to work on this, collaboratively. But to be clear, Etch is not working on Ventilus itself, and we are not going to deliver solutions within the Ventilus timeframe. Etch is a much broader initiative.”

A unique collaboration

For Van Hertem, everything starts with the quality of the research.“ Relevant research starts with scientific
excellence,” he says. “As a team, you need to operate at the highest international level.” Over the past few years, EnergyVille has built strong expertise in electrical transmission networks, and particularly in HVDC (high-voltage direct current), a technology that is especially well suited for long underground connections carrying large amounts of power.

What sets Etch apart, in his view, is its focus on system integration. “We look very specifically at the system,” he says. “Our strength is not in developing a single new technology. We provide knowledge on how technologies should be used, simulated, and integrated into a reliable grid.”

That also makes the collaboration with industry different. “In some other fields, the work goes much deeper into one specific technology, and you almost become an IP supplier. Our approach is much more collaborative. We look at how different innovations, each with their own role and technical characteristics, can function together in one electricity system.”

Etch deliberately positions itself as a market-neutral competence hub. Research institutions, technology companies, manufacturers and transmission system operators work together in a pre-competitive environment on questions that no single player can solve alone. In 2025, that system-oriented approach took concrete shape with the launch of the Etch Partnership Programme.

“You only launch something like this once,” says Van Hertem. “It was the moment to make clear what we want to be. Not a traditional research contract, but a collaboration in which we work together with industry on the major challenges ahead.”

That took time, and a fair amount of persuasion. “What we are building has several dimensions,” he says. “We want to do research together, offer training, involve partners in lab infrastructure, and at the same time build an ecosystem. For many companies, that is not a familiar way of working together. It took quite a few conversations to make that clear to everyone, including to ourselves, and to show that this was not business as usual.”

Major players on board

The response was strong. In 2025, the programme gained real traction, with more than twenty partners
now committed. These include major international players such as Siemens Energy, GE Vernova and Hitachi Energy, as well as transmission system operators Elia in Belgium and Transnet in Germany.

For Van Hertem, one important point is that Etch does not follow the classic model in which companies fund research and then receive a result in return. “It is not a case of industry giving money to EnergyVille and us delivering something back,” he says. “We are trying to create an environment in which everyone in the partnership can benefit from each other’s expertise. We are a facilitator in that process, but not necessarily the intermediary for
everything.”

For companies, the partnership also offers something very concrete: access to academic expertise, joint research projects, training, and new simulation lab infrastructure. In this way, they gain a shared platform for addressing questions around HVDC, underground transmission and grid integration more quickly and more collectively. 

Faster progress, together

The first strategic tracks are already underway. “One example is the use of our new lab infrastructure to study how equipment in one partner’s installations responds to the larger frequency fluctuations that come with the integration of more renewable energy,” Van Hertem explains. “We can help companies better understand how their installations behave under changing grid conditions, and how they can contribute to system stability as more
renewable energy comes online. We also have strategic collaborations underway with partners such as Elia, for example, around stability calculations and the cost-efficient expansion of the electricity system.” 

At the same time, each of Etch’s four research lines launched its first joint research project. “This is where we can show how valuable collaboration really is,” Van Hertem says with a smile. “And by ‘valuable’, I mean how much faster we can move forward together. You have grid operators, technology suppliers and integrators sitting around the same table. That makes it much easier to identify the best technologies, understand their limits, and move towards solutions more quickly.”

What is HVDC? 

HVDC stands for High-Voltage Direct Current. It is a technology for transmitting large amounts of electricity efficiently over long distances. That is becoming increasingly important in the energy transition. Electricity from offshore wind farms, for example, has to reach industry, cities, and other consumers. Ideally, this would be done underground, but technically, that is far from straightforward. That is why Etch is researching how this kind of connection can be developed safely, reliably and affordably.

Deepen your expertise

In 2025, Etch and UGain jointly organised the post-academic course Transmission grids, HVDC & underground cables, aimed at engineers and professionals who want to deepen or broaden their understanding of transmission systems. Across twelve afternoon sessions, participants covered topics including cable technology, protection,digital substations, grid control, and HVDC, complemented by hands-on workshops in the Etch-EnergyVille labs. The course is organised every two years, so the next edition will take place in 2027.