Electrification is emerging as a key theme under the EU’s Clean Industrial Deal. If incentivised correctly, it can support Europe’s competitiveness, autonomy and resilience. However, electrification in Europe has been stalling in recent years, stuck at 23% of total energy for the past decade. At a time when electricity demand should be increasing, it instead dropped by 7.5% between 2021-23, before a small increase of 1% last year. This lag in demand is creating challenges in the power market, including RES curtailments and negative prices, which jeopardise the business case for the new investments we need in generation capacities.

While the technologies and challenges involved on the supply side are well understood and progress is under way, attention is increasingly turning to demand, a crucial but complex part of the equation. Beyond simply electrifying their processes, industrial consumers can play an important role in supporting the electricity system. For example, large and predictable baseload consumption can help optimise grid planning, reducing uncertainty regarding future electricity demand in order to accurately size our electricity grids while avoiding overbuilds. Industrial consumers also facilitate the integration of renewable energy by consuming power when overall demand is low, helping to reduce curtailment. Flexibility services offered by industrial consumers, to the extent this is technically feasible and economically desirable, can also play an important role in keeping the electricity system in balance.

Listen to this Euractiv Hybrid Conference to discuss the role of industrial power consumption in Europe, and what opportunities it can create for the power system. Questions to be discussed include:

-How can predictable industrial demand help integrate more renewables and reduce system costs?
-What is the flexibility potential of key industrial sectors, such as aluminium, steel and cement?
-How can industry contribute to grid flexibility while remaining competitive globally?
-What incentives are needed to make industrial electrification investments viable and timely?