Second Annual Belgian Energy Transition Workshop: Shaping the Future Grid: Challenges in Control, Security, and Acceptance

The power system is evolving, driven by the urgent need to decarbonize our society and combat climate change. As we move toward a more sustainable and electrified future, new technical, societal, and strategic challenges emerge.

A greater share of electricity in our energy mix requires a significant expansion of the grid—an effort that cannot succeed without public support. Increasing infrastructure acceptance is therefore essential to move projects forward and align the energy transition with societal needs.

At the same time, the grid is facing mounting physical and operational stresses, largely due to the variability of renewable energy sources. Planners and operators have to prioritize resilience and grid security, ensuring the system can adapt to climate extremes, geopolitical uncertainty, and rapidly evolving demand and generation patterns.

Together, these challenges reflect the complexity and urgency of the moment. To address them, EnergyVille, with the support of the Flemish government, has established Etch, the Energy Transmission Competence Hub.

The grid of the future must not only be clean and efficient. It must also be accepted, resilient, secure, and fundamentally reimagined.

Programme

• 09h00 – 09h30 Registration and coffee
• 09h30 – 09h45 Opening words
• 09h45 – 10h15 Keynote  – Hitachi Energy
• 10h20 – 11h10 parallel session: Increasing infrastructure acceptance OR Technology for grid security
  • Increasing infrastructure acceptance:
    • Virginie Kluyskens, Dynamic Simulations of Converter for Electrolyzer inside a Medium Voltage Industrial Grid
    • Hakan Ergun, Harmonic Hosting Capacity for Underground Cables
    • Amauri B. Martins, Uncertainty of Frequency Dependent Impedance Parameters for Transmission Assets
  • Technology for grid security:
    • Pierre Hennaux, Assessing and Enhancing Power System Reliability
    • Pedro Baena, HVDC Instrument Transformer Bandwidth Selection Methodology
    • Merijn Van Deyck,  Optimization of HVDC circuit breaker configuration in DC switching stations
• 11h10 – 11h25 Coffee
• 11h25 – 12h15 Panel discussion of parallel sessions
• 12h15 – 14h00 Lunch and poster session
• 14h00 – 14h30 Keynote: Xavier Bourgeat (Rte) – Interoperability challenges from a TSOs perspective
• 14h40 – 15h30 Parallel session: To grid form or not to grid form OR Planning a resilient grid:
  • To grid form or to not grid form:
    • Francesco G. Puricelli, Improving Active Power Support in Bipolar HVDC Systems with Grid-Forming MMCs
    • Francisco J.Cifuentes Garcia, Small-signal interaction analysis of a bipolar grid-forming MMC-HVDC link
  • Planning a resilient grid:
    • Madeleine Jendernalik, Planning a Resilient and Sustainable Grid
    • Oscar Damanik, Mitigating large-scale offshore wind farm shutdowns during a severe storm using an adaptive robust optimization approach
    • Kaan Yurtseven, Operational planning in powers system under uncertainty
• 15h30 – 15h45 Coffee
• 15h45 – 16h35  Panel discussion on parallel sessions
• 16h40 – 17h00 Moderators’ summary of the parallel sessions
• 17h00  Reception

Practical information

Date: 16 September

Time: 9 AM-6 PM CET

Location: Thor Central, Genk