Speakers

Roberto Zangrandi

Secretary General, E.DSO

Roberto Zangrandi is Secretary General of E.DSO. Previously he was Head of European Public Affairs between 2007 and 2015. At Enel, he also served as Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Identity and Image, Corporate Communication Plans. In his background, 12 years with Fiat (Director of External Relations in Frankfurt and Head of International Media Relations) and 15 years an economic and financial journalist. In addition, he worked as an organisational communication expert for a first-tier consulting company for some years. He studied Political Science and Sociology and held a Master in International Associations Management from the Solvay Brussels School.

Anjos Nijk

Managing Director, ENCS

Anjos Nijk is Managing Director of the European Network for Cyber security (ENCS). In addition to his duties with ENCS, he is an observer in the Steering Committee of the Smart Grids Task Force of the European Commission, member of cybersecurity EG2 and ENCS liaison with European associations including ENTSO-E, E.DSO and EUTC. He started his career in various international management functions at AT&T and Lucent Technologies and was involved in various innovative start-ups. Anjos holds a degree in Technische Bedrijfskunde (Business Administration and Informatics) at University of Twente, The Netherlands.

Frans Campfens

Principal Consultant Energy Consulting (IT/OT and Analytics), Alliander

Mr Frans Campfens has a master degree in Business Telecommunication and a solid background in microelectronics and ICT. In the last 33 years he was primarily involved in the utility industry as an project manager and consultant with a wide range of subjects a.o telecommunication, ICT, AMR, Smartgrid and Network Analytics; and he has gained considerable experience with issues in this industry. Currently he has a position as a Principal Consultant at Qirion Energy Consulting involved with the implementation of utility products to avoid congestion in relation to the remote control of large solar- and wind farms and the security aspects. Mr. Campfens has a large international network.

Mohseen Mohemmed

Lead PAC Engineer, SSEN Transmission

Mohseen Mohemmed is Lead PAC Engineer in the policy and standards team. He shares responsibilities for protection and control aspects for delivery and innovation projects within transmission. Mohseen is heavily involved with the innovation team, looking at the prospects of using emerging technologies for current and future projects of SSEN Transmission. He contributed in the first commissioned fully interoperable IEC 61850 station bus substation in SSEN Transmission, which is the first of its kind in the UK. He took his career in transmission sector after graduating from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen in 2002. During his period of work with Balfour Beatty Engineering Services, he worked on all transmission voltage levels. He is now working in the next stages for full IEC 61850 implementation including process bus. He is a UK regular member for CIGRE B5.74 busbar protection considerations when using IEC 61850 process bus.

Christoph Brunner

Convener, TC57 WG10

Jorge Solar Mulas

Protection and Control Engineer, Scottish Power

Jorge Solar has worked within Protection & Control for SP Energy Networks for 7 years and another 10 year as P&C engineer in Spain. He is currently a Lead Design Engineer, working on the development and delivery of major transmission network projects. As part of this, He is a member of the company’s Digital Substation Working Group, looking at the roll out of IEC 61850 station and process bus as a business-as-usual solution. He is the P&C engineer directly working in Windyhill 275kV, the first station and process bus project in SPEN

Maren Istad

Research Scientist, SINTEF

Maren Istad received her MSc degree in Electrical Engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 2006. She has been with SINTEF Energy Research, Department of Energy Systems since 2006, working mainly with asset management in hydro-electric power stations and electrical distribution and transmission systems.

Mika Loukkalahti

Systems Manager, Helen Oy

Mika studied Electrical Engineering at Tampere University of Technology with Electric Power Systems as a major subject. He received his Master of Science degree in 1996. He joined Helsinki Energy in 1997 as a Protection Engineer. In addition to protection systems, substation automation, power quality, network calculation and various expert tasks with network automation and R&D have been his expert and responsible areas. Since 2001 he had led a group, which is now mainly responsible of previous mentioned tasks. In 2006 Helen Electricity Networks Ltd was founded, this subsidiary company of Helsinki Energy is responsible of electricity distribution in Helsinki City area. He has been Finnish Study Committee Member of CIGRE B5 (Protection and Automation) Committee from 2006 to 2012. He has been an active member of several CIGRE B5 working groups in Substation Automation area. He has also made several presentations in various courses and seminars on protection and automation area. He is married and has two children.

Fouad Abou Chacra

Senior Specialist for Special Projects and Innovation, DEWA

Dr Fouad Abou Chacra holds a PhD in electrical engineering, has occupied positions of research professional, contractor and consultant in several organizations such as SUPELEC, AREVA T&D, Consolidated Contractors, and Electricité de France. Currently working for Dubai Electricity and Water Authority as Senior Specialist Special Projects and Innovation, where he leads the design and implementation of innovation management systems, enterprise architecture program, emerging technologies, and organizational development in addition to advising on Operations Technology systems, cyber security and digital transformation.

Stewart Flood

Lifecycle Management Specialist, ESB

Gained BE in Electrical/Electronic Engineering and MSc in Energy Management from the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). As Lifecycle Specialist in the Asset Performance team in Transmission & Distribution Engineering, ESB, Ireland, his roles have covered SF. Externally, he has participated at CIGRE Working Groups A2.55 (Life extension of transformers) and JWG B3/A3.59 (Guidelines for SF6 end-of-life treatment).

João Fonseca

Engineer and Coordinator of Digital Substations, Netze BW 

João works as an Engineer and Coordinator of Digital Substations at Netze BW. His personal goal is to become climate neutral before he turns 30 and motivate others along the way. He is currently supporting Netze BW in its path to become a climate neutral company and enable the distribution of energy to more than 2.3 Million costumers with net-zero carbon emissions. Some of his accomplishments include launching three different digital energy products supporting the digital transformation at companies he has worked with.

Timothy Okuneye

Electrical Project Engineer, UK Power Networks

Electrical engineering professional at UK Power Networks with strong technical skills in high and low voltage electrical power engineering, team working, financial forecasting/budgeting, protection, commissioning, testing of electrical machines/plant and design of high and low voltage distribution networks.

Silvio Alessandroni

Technology Innovation Manager, Areti 

Silvio Alessandroni was born in 1973 in Rome, Italy. He is an Innovation Manager in the Operational Technologies area. After an experience in the engineering sector (FCA & Agusta Westland), since 2004 he has been working in the Utility Sector at areti spa (DSO operating in the Rome area). Over the years he has coordinated the development of innovative technological solutions and the digitization of operational processes in the Smart Grid & Automation / Remote Control areas. Education: Electronic Engineer, Master's Degree and PhD in Mechanical Engineering, with MBA and SIX Sigma certification.

Alex Stefanov

Director, Control Room of the Future

Alexandru Stefanov is Assistant Professor of Intelligent Electrical Power Grids at TU Delft, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, The Netherlands. He is Director of the Control Room of the Future (CRoF) Technology Centre in the Department of Electrical Sustainable Energy. His research interests are cyber security for power grids, resilience of cyber-physical systems, and next generation grid operation. He holds the professional title of Chartered Engineer from Engineers Ireland.

Ralf Heisig

Product Manager MCCS NextGen, 50 Hertz

Ralf Heisig is Product Lifecycle Manager and Project Lead for MCCS (Modular Control Center System) and Team Lead for „Digital Transformation in System Operation“ at 50Hertz (German TSO). He has over 30 years’ experience in different Business Areas as IT-Manager, Program Manager and R&D Engineer for Sustainable Energy Solutions Distribution (at Vattenfall) and as Product and Project Manager in Power System Applications in the area of Energy Management Systems, Station Automation, Power Quality and Communication Technologies (at Siemens). He holds a Diploma in Communication Technologies & Electrical Engineering from Berlin International University of Applied Sciences (Germany, 2004).

Walter Schaffer

Head of Competence Centre Electricity, Salzburg Netz

Walter Schaffer is head of the Competence Center Electricity and responsible for the electrical distribution grid in the province of Salzburg. At Salzburg Netz GmbH he started as an asset manager and network planning engineer for the electrical grid and was head of the network operating center. He holds a Dipl.-Ing. in Electrical Power Engineering from Graz University of Technology and a Master of Business Engineering (MBE) from Steinbeis University Berlin. One recent project engagement was the coordination of a group of Austrian DSO working on a “guideline” on DSO network control requirements in the changing environment.

Fei Teng

Senior Lecturer, Imperial College London

Dr Fei Teng received BEng from Beihang University (BUAA), China in 2009 and PhD from Imperial College London in 2015. He is currently the Director of Education in the Energy Futures Lab, a pan-university hub promoting inter-disciplinary research in energy, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London. He holds visiting positions at MINES ParisTech, France and PolyU, Hong Kong. His research focuses on the power system operation with high penetration of Inverter-Based Resources (IBRs) and the cyber-resiliency of digitalised power grids. He is the editor of IEEE Transactions of Power Systems and IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy. He serves as a Member-at-Large at IEEE Technical Committee on Cyber-Physical Systems and IEEE Technical Committee on Carbon Neutrality. He is the holder of the Kan Tong Po International Fellowship from the Royal Society. He has authored more than 80 scientific publications in leading power system journals and conferences. His research has been funded by EPSRC, ESRC, Innovate UK, Research England, the Royal Society, Siemens, EDF Energy, Hitachi Energy, and National Grid ESO.

Benoit De Neuville

Senior Grid Expert, Sibelg

Benoît got a master degree in industrial engineering at ECAM Brussels in 1982. He spent most of his career working for the Brussels DSO, firstly in the exploitation of the LV and MV networks and then as manager of the service Network Operations. Nowadays he is a member of the team implementing a real-time control system (ADMS) in both MV and LV networks. He is also active in the development of the emergency plans in case of scarcity or blackout.

Brian Magee

Project Manager, ESB International 

Brian is a SCADA/EMS Engineer with 18 Years. Responsible for delivery of projects through their execution including managing the commercial side/ project delivery /stake holder management and other activities. Brian has a MSc in Energy Management, B.Eng and a professional Diploma in Project Management. Brian has worked on many SCADA/ DMS and EMS  projects. Conducting site surveys, GAP analysis, design specification, tenders documents, managed the tender process, commissioning of OT systems including SCADA / EMS / DMS, functions design reviews, FATs, SATs, Point to Point testing, cutover. He has helped many utilities in capacity building, and transition from thermal based generation to Incorporate large scale RES and distributed generation.

Dr Kamal Radi

Senior Specialist, Power Systems Planning, SCADA and Energy Management Systems (EMS), ESB International 

Kamal is currently working as Senior Specialist, SCADA and Power Systems Operation & Planning and control. Kamal has a thorough knowledge in the Energy sector (Energy Markets, RES, Ancillary Services, Cyber Security, System operation, Planning, and Control with special emphasis on the tools and facilities used (SCADA/EMS/DMS of various vendors ABB, Siemens, GE, and OSI). He has a vast international experience gained through working with the Westinghouse Systems UK, The National Grid UK, Oman Electricity Transmission Company, and several technical Management positions with Abu Dhabi Transmission and Dispatch Company. Kamal is a Chartered Electrical Engineer hold PhD in Electrical from Queens University, UK

Dr Tareg Ghaoud

Head of Smart Grid Integration, DEWA 

Dr Tareg Ghaoud is leading the smart grid integration team in DEWA R&D center since Feb 2021. He is a charted Engineer with over 20 years of industry experience in the utility sector, a senior project manager, and a product owner for the delivery and development of innovative solutions. Led and delivered projects in power systems covering technologies such as ANM, SCS, DA, Micro-grids, VPP, and Grid analytics. Lived and worked in the UAE, UK, Germany, Spain, Poland, Egypt and Libya. He holds a DPhil degree in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford, MSc degree in Control Systems from the Imperial college London, and a BEng degree in Control Engineering from the University of Sussex

Erwin Van de Velde

Product Owner, Gasunie

Erwin van der Velde graduated as a computer scientist at the Groningen University RUG in 1988. He is an ICT and gastransport professional with over 35 years of experience in ICT development, architecture and management and management of gastransport processes within the national gastransport company of the Netherlands Gasunie. He was heavily involved twice in the complete development of a Gas Transport Management System (GTMS) for the national Dutch gas network. He now is the product manager of the Gasunie GTMS that will be transformed into an Energy Transport Management System the coming years. The ETMS will be used for gas, hydrogen, heat and CO2 transport. He participated in several international standardization committees for messaging (Gasnet & Edig@s) and substation communication (IEC104). He also has extensive knowledge about online gas simulation and the tight integration with a GTMS.

François Gorlier

System Data Operations, Elia

François Gorlier graduated as an electrical engineer in 2009 (Faculté Polytechnique of Mons) and business engineer in 2013 (UCL Mons). He joined Elia in 2016, and has been involved since then in multiple projects around network

Fredi Belavić

Asset Management, Austrian Power Grid 

Fredi Belavić graduated as an electrical engineer at University of Maribor, Slovenia, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1999. He started his career path as project engineer in the field of LV & MV Switchgear in Slovenia getting the first experiences with the protection, automation and control equipment. Since 2004 he was covering several positions in sales, business development and application support in the field of MV equipment and since 2007 in the field of protection, automation and control equipment and systems. Since 2018 he cover the position of asset manage at the Austrian Power Grid, Austrian transmission system operator, following different topics with focus on power and instrument transformers and its condition assessment and maintenance strategy as well as digitalization and digital transformation in the HV substations. Fredi Belavić is active in several CIGRE, CIRED, IEC and national working groups and co-author of several papers.

Jan Vorrink

Head of Control Centres Netherlands, System Operation, TenneT

Jan Vorrink has over 20 years of experience in the Electricity business at the Dutch Transmission System Operator. Mr. Vorrink has graduated as a Master in Business Administration and is an Engineer. He is working for TenneT since 2002 as a Manager in several departments. The activities of his department include the operational Planning processes, Realtime processes and the balancing and settlement processes. He is also involved in the Association of the TSO’s in Europe (ENTSO-E) in the Coordinated System Operation group.

Koen Kok

Professor Intelligent Energy Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology

Koen Kok is Professor Intelligent Energy Systems at the Electrical Engineering Department of the Eindhoven University of Technology. He has extensive research experience applying intelligent and distributed software technologies in energy systems. He was among the European smart grid pioneers, with involvement in early developments and field deployments. Currently, he is scientific director of the MegaMind research program on technical, legal and ethical aspects of Artificial Intelligence applied in the electricity system’s edge. Further, he leads numerous research projects in the field. Application of intelligent software in the operation of (local) electricity systems and in market trade, against the background of the unfolding energy transition, is a key focus of Kok and his team. Photographed by Angeline Swinkels.

Rui Almeida

Project Manager, E-REDES

Rui Almeida was born in 1966 in Portugal. He is an electrical engineer (1989, Oporto University). He started working in IT companies and joined Portuguese Electrical DSO, EDP, in 1993, mainly focused on IT and process management areas. Since 2010, he took on the role of project manager in the IT/OT area, covering several automation projects related with Smartgrids, SCADA and Control Center systems. Currently he is acting as the lead project manager, responsible for the implementation of the future E-Redes ADMS system.

Sergio Ramos Pinto

Deputy Director of Digital Platform Division, E-REDES

Sérgio Pinto holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Porto and an Executive-MBA from INDEG-ISCTE, with more than 30 years of experience on telecommunications, he began his professional activity in EDP, planning and deploying Radio and PLC networks for SCADA connectivity, latter joining the founding team of ONITELECOM where he led the implementation of the first Portuguese nationwide Broadband Backbone and Fixed Wireless Access. His 18 years at ONITELECOM gave him the opportunity to focus on service convergence innovation and tailored E2E assurance practices for corporate, enterprise and financial customers, developing cross-functional managerial experience by holding directive positions in Engineering, Operations and Customer Care, leading to is latter position as the company’s CTO. Back in E-REDES since 2014, currently holding a position as deputy director of Digital Platform Division, and vice-chair at the European Telecommunication Council (EUTC), he is actively involved in connectivity solutions for the energy transition, leveraging on E-REDES’s Fiber and IP-MPLS infrastructure, and addressing the access domain through a Private MVNO, 4G and 5G capabilities and edge computing. The current wave of ICT convergence and digital disruption, where ML/AI, IoT and edge processing pervasiveness are considered game changing capabilities, requiring new sourcing and assurance practices, motivates his current research on new technologies, architectures and supply models, promoting peer cooperation, pursuing an “open” advanced architecture and sourcing for resilient perimeters, preserving performance and security, fostering the Utility’s contribution to the energy and digital transformations.

Christian Freudenmann

Manager M2M Products, 450Alliance

Christian Freudenmann has two main fields of interest in helping to fast-track the energy transition: The energy sector and modern communication technologies. Currently, he is responsible for the M2M ecosystem of smart grid and smart metering devices in the German LTE 450 network. Before that, he was responsible for metering, grid control and fibre infrastructure of a local German DSO. In former roles he established and managed the product portfolio and software development of all wireless M2M product variants of German Smart Meter Gateway manufacturer Power Plus Communications AG and worked in different departments across the Energy sector of EnBW.

Tim Godfrey

Technical Executive, Information and Communications Technology, EPRI

Tim Godfrey is a Technical Executive with the Electric Power Research Institute. He manages the Telecommunications research in the Information and Communication Technology program, addressing the key challenges utilities face as they enhance their telecommunications infrastructure to enable grid modernization. He holds a BSEE from the University of Kansas and has worked in the area of wireless networking and communications for 30 years. He is the Chair of the IEEE 802.24 Smart Grid Technical Advisory Group and the IEEE 802.15.16t Task Group.

Frank Borchardt

Senior Product Manager, VDE

Frank Borchardt is Senior Project Manager Digitalization and Metering at VDE FNN, the technical regulation body for the German electricity industry. With his team he stands in the middle of bringing flexibility to the low voltage networks. Technical regulation by VDE FNN is setting the standards on smart metering from basic components up to a secure communication infrastructure. Frank is active in the energy industry for more than 25 years, working on various projects about smart metering and smart grids. Before joining VDE FNN, he was working for European players in the Smart Home/Smart Grid sector and one German meter manufacturer. At least he got on a “first name basis” with smart meters.

Brian Collins

Director, Digital Grid, EY

Brian is a London-based director within EY’s global Digital Grid centre of excellence and leads the Smart Metering solutions. Brian has over 13 years of experience working in the Advanced Metering Infrastructure and Intelligent Grid Operations supporting clients, within a variety of roles from strategy through to implementation and operation, in over 25+ major transformation programmes around the world. As part of this Brian is particularly focused around how the role of the meter, as well as meter data, can evolve to drive greater value for networks and customers.

Henrik Hagberg

Rollout Manager, Ellevio

Henrik has been in the smart metering field for 15 years within several different roles managing rollout projects as well as daily operations working both on the client and the supplier side. He focuses on utilizing the AMI platform to drive digitalization of the energy utility, unlocking new potential and as a means to achieve operational excellence. Most recently heading Ellevio’s installation of 900.000 new smart meters in Sweden – transitioning from the first to second generation AMI platform.

Davy Michiels

Project Manager Digital Meters, Fluvius

Davy Michiels is an accomplished Enterprise Architect at Fluvius, a multi-utility distribution system operator in Belgium. He has extensive experience in designing and implementing complex digital transformations and has a proven track record of successful project management. He guides Fluvius through the ongoing energy transition by aligning technology with business strategy. He has played a key role in the integration of smart meters in Belgium, improving Fluvius' operational efficiency and enhancing customer service by supplying data insights both to customers and enabling enhanced data analytics at Fluvius. As a multi-utility DSO (Distribution System Operator), Fluvius supplies electricity and gas distribution, sewerage, and telecommunications infrastructure. The focus of his enterprise architecture vision is to build an integrated business organization and IT landscape that maximizes the benefits of these multiple utility networks. By collaborating with experts across the organization, he has enabled Fluvius to adapt to the changing energy and utility landscape, driving innovation, enhancing organizational performance, and contributing to the ongoing energy transition.

Thomas Arnold Thomsen

Team Manager Metering, SEV

Thomas has a background in electrical installations working as an electrician, project manager and consulting engineer in Denmark before joining the utility SEV in The Faroe Islands in 2012.Today he oversees metering activities at SEV. His responsibilities include daily operations and continuous development of the AMI system, quality assurance, technical support, and customer service. Thomas is also involved in planning the future AMI setup in The Faroe Islands and exploring how AMI and other smart grid technologies best supports SEVs strategy of transitioning to an energy system based on 100 % renewable energy by the year 2030.

Leon Maruša

Data Scientist AMI, Elektro Celje

Leon Maruša holds a Master of Science in Automation and Robotics from Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Maribor, Slovenia. After his studies he followed a research career in Slovenian power energy sector at Milan Vidmar Power Research Institute where he operated for 5 years covering Wide-Area and PMU systems, circuit breaker online monitoring and advanced data analytics both in EU and national projects. As of March 2020 he works for a Slovenian DSO – Elektro Celje. He currently leads the advanced data analytics department that does predictive analysis and big data analytics for improving company's operations and maintenance. He is also highly active on Horizon 2020 projects where he leads practical implementations of data analytics services. As of 2021 he is ECQA certified project manager for managing European projects and also holds National vocational qualification for project management.

Arjan Wargers

Innovation Manager Electric Mobility, Enexis

Arjan Wargers is Manager Research & Innovation at ElaadNL. He is detached from Enexis to ElaadNL. ElaadNL is founded by the DSO’s in the Netherlands. ElaadNL researches the grid impact of the rise of EV and the possibilities of smart charging to decrease this grid impact. This research is executed on behalf of the Dutch DSO’s, taking into account the smart charging objectives of other stakeholders. The emergence of EV and different possibilities of smart charging is a significant development for the electricity grid. Arjan is responsible for the ElaadNL research and innovation agenda with multiple initiatives to explore smart charging and energy management. The possibilities range from direct control to indirect control by the use of incentives and variable capacity contracts (from DSO’s point of view) to a (local) market-place approach to contract flexibility. Recently solutions to ‘unlock’ flexibility from other residential devices also became part of the research scope. And for this reason Arjan joined Flexible Power Alliance Network, FAN (Home - Flexible Energy (flexible-energy.eu)) as a board member on behalf of Enexis. Next to that Arjan works as an innovation manager at Enexis to align the different research and development results at ElaadNL and FAN with the different innovation agenda’s of Enexis. This with main focus on further development of the deployment of Smart Charging for efficient use of available grid capacity.

Peter Jensen

Chair of IEC Technical Committee 13, Senior Researcher, EDF

Peter Jensen is chair of IEC TC13, director to the DLMS User Association’s board of directors and has been involved in international standardization in the field of metering for over 15 years. Mr. Jensen joined the EDF Group in 2007 where he currently holds a position in EDF's Research & Development division as a Senior Researcher with a senior advisory role in smart metering and smart grid projects for the EDF Group. Mr. Jensen has been involved in the French and British smart metering programmes as expert and technical lead. Before joining EDF, M. Jensen has held positions as project manager and advanced development manager for more than 15 years in the test & measurement business. In these positions, he has been involved in the development of web-based AMR-solutions, smart electricity meters, wireless solutions as well as handheld measurement instruments.

Willem Strabbing

Managing Director, ESMIG

Willem Strabbing is Technical Director of ESMIG, the European voice of Smart Energy solution providers. In this position he is responsible for the technical work of the ESMIG organisation and the representation of ESMIG in European technical working groups. Before joining ESMIG, mr Strabbing was manager of the unit Intelligent Networks and Communication of KEMA Consulting. Mr. Strabbing has more than 30 years experience in advanced computer applications and data communication related to the energy industry. The development European strategies related to the implementation of Smart Meters and Consumer Energy Management Systems on both political and technical level currently are in the focus of Mr. Strabbing’s work. He is involved in various discussions with stakeholders in Europe regarding these issues. Mr Strabbing represents ESMIG in the steering committees of among others the CEN/CENELEC/ETSI Coordination Group for Smart Grids, the Smart Grid Task Force of the European Commission and relevant Technical Committees in CEN/CENELEC.

Lisa Hjerrild

Department of Law, Assistant Professor, Public Law, Syddansk Universitet

Lisa Hjerrild is an assistant professor at the Department of Law at the University of Southern Denmark. She received her PhD degree in 2021 based on her research on the legal challenges arising with the use of smart metering systems in the electricity sector and the collection of meter data in the light of the right to respect for private life and the protection of personal data. Her research focus is still centered around consumer aspects of EU and Danish energy regulation

Georg Hartner

Vice-Chair of EU DSO Entity’s Expert Group on Data Interoperability and Initiator/Technical Coordinator of Project, EDDIE

Georg is working for Austrian Energy Association and GEODE in the EU Smart Grids Task Force and is a key contributor to its advice for the ongoing initiative to establish European energy service interoperability legislation. He is also a member of EU DSO Entity’s expert groups for Data Interoperability and Distributed Flexibility, and a member of the Development Team for the Network Code on Demand Response. He contributes to continuously improving energy data exchange in Austria in co-operation with EDA GmbH. Accompanying these work streams, Georg is the initiator of Horizon Europe – funded “Project EDDIE – European Distributed Data Infrastructure for Energy”, which will make available European retail energy data easily available through a de-centralised uniform interface. Based on this foundation, Georg contributed to the design of INSIEME – an initiative to establish a holistic and standardized data exchange infrastructure for individual consumer activation and energy communities, to free their digital platforms from their national nutshell and let them grow and scale at a European level

Klaas Hommes

Director, MFFBas 

Klaas Hommes (1967) is an expert on the Dutch utility sector, he has over 25 years of experience in a broad variety of (management)functions. He has joined TenneT TSO B.V. twelve years ago and joined the System Operations Department (International Developments) as Business Developer. In 2008 he was one of the participants in developing the congestion management scheme in Westland, which has been used from December 2008 until July 2010. Since 2008 Klaas is working as Business Developer European Electricity Markets and has been involved in issues as Smart Grids, European Market Design, Data Exchange, Integration of Renewables, Electrical vehicles and more innovative issues. Klaas has also been chairing two international Steering Committees (MARI and Picasso) steering projects on Frequency Products (aFRR and mFRR). Since 2023 Klaas is Managing Director of the Framework administrator on data exchange (BAS BV) in the Netherlands.  Previously Klaas worked as a manager for Essent, RWE and NUON. Before joining TenneT Klaas worked for Capgemini as Managing Consultant.

Ilija Atlagic

Manager Digital Grid Consulting, EY

Ilija is a Manager for Intelligent Grid Operations as part of EY’s Digital Grid practice. He holds a MSc degree in Electrical and Software Engineering with specialisation in applied software solutions for power systems. He advises utilities with their OT strategy and roadmaps, designing business and technical architectures, setting up system, data and process requirements and helping navigate the organisational change management. He has designed and delivered utility ADMS solutions with a focus on SCADA, OMS, DMS and DERMS implementations in Europe, the USA and Canada. He has helped utilities prepare their data for the ADMS network model that enables the application of advanced distribution management functions.

Svein Harald Olsen 

Enterprise Information Architect, Statnett

Svein Harald Olsen works as Enterprise Information Architect at Statnett SF, the Norwegian TSO. He has a Master of Computer System Engineering from University of Bristol, United Kingdom. He has over 20 years’ experience in developing IT solution for the power electricity value chain from power generation and trading to end-user customers. This involves application like Customer Information Systems (CIS) through Power System Transient Stability Software. Svein Olsen is Norwegian member of IEC TC57 WG13 and WG14. He is member of ENTSO-E CGMES expert group and been active participant in developing the CGMES for you in the Common Grid Model (CGM) program that is implementing the EU Network Code.

Per-Oddvar Osland

Department Lead, Analytics, Agder Energi Nett 

Per-Oddvar Osland is currently research manager at Glitre Nett, Norway’s second largest grid company. Main focus areas include innovation, data utilisation, AI and research portfolio management. He has 14 year experience from the grid domain, and has been in charge of smart metering roll out and establishing a data analytics department. Former experience cover SW development, research in telecommunications and teaching. He holds a MSc in Mathematics and a PhD in Telematics.

Tahir Saleem

Senior Specialist, OT Security, DEWA

Tahir commands over a decade of professional experience in OT/ ICS domains with proven expertise in security strategy development, architecture design & engineering, mission-critical operation support, commissioning and maintenance of security services for owners and operators of critical infrastructure services covering: power & water, mining, transport (rail), and oil & gas products. Tahir is currently working with the Dubai Electricity & Water Authority to build, develop and continually improve the OT security capability for the organization.

Salim Bouramman

Expert OT Cyber Resilience and Cyber Range, E.On

Salim Bouramman is an expert in OT-Systems in the power grid sector with more than a decade of experience. He is a consultant for Cyber Resilience in E.ON’s Cyber Security Unit. In his role, he supports the development of resilient operational concept and is a trainer in E.ON’s CyberRange-e. Here he develops and operates the simulated technical energy infrastructure for his trainees and improves their ability to withstand cyber-attacks. Formerly, he was product lifecycle manager for grid protection systems at a German DSO. He was commissioned with the standardization of protection technologies and fundamental issues for the operation and risk assessment of thousands of protection, automation, and control devices.

Michael Knuchel

Head of Substation Automation, Swissgrid

Michael Knuchel graduated in Electronics Engineering and has a Master at the ETH in Management, Technology and Economics. He is working as Head of Engineering SAS for Swissgrid and is additionally responsible for the Cyber Security Projects in the OT environment. He was Project Manager and one of the Authors of the Cyber Security Framework of Swissgrid for substations. Michael Knuchel has gathered experience in the OT field leading international commissioning teams for Substation Automation Systems for five years for ABB worldwide. He is Chairman of the cyber security task force of the Electricity Industry Association.

Indrek Kunapuu

CISO, Electrilevi

Indrek Künnapuu has a background in the Estonian Defence Forces and over ten years of experience in information technology and information security, with in-depth knowledge of implementing and maintaining communication infrastructure in critical services. He is currently the Chief Information Security Officer at Elektrilevi. Elektrilevi is the most significant distribution system operator in Estonia, where Indrek is also a technical advisor on cybersecurity matters involving large-scale IT projects and daily operations. Among other information security projects in Elektrilevi, Indrek is also responsible for implementing an ISMS and a BCMS.

Adrian Ferguson

Transmission OT Manager, SSEN

Adrian Ferguson graduated in Business, then completed a post graduate Master’s degree in IT. He is a Chartered Engineer with 27 years’ experience in control systems management. Adrian leads the Operational Technology teams in SSEN Transmission, building teams to support the systems, improve the performance and test the cyber security of central and field equipment. He is involved in government liaison on cyber assessment frameworks and on regulatory approval of investment programmes. He has a particular passion for staff development and has been working to build a diverse and flexible modern workforce.

Damien Ploix

Cybersecurity Manager, Enedis

Damien Ploix is actually in charge of IACS cybersecurity department at ENEDIS. He graduated as a doctor in artificial intelligence at the Paris University 8 in 1999. He is a IT/OT Utility Industry professional who has managed multiple kinds of projects. Starting with IT projects as customer web portals, setting up business intelligence and enterprise application integration platforms and solutions. He went into OT starting by PLM solution to facilitate the exchange of information between engineering and operational teams and now working on scada cyber security over past seven years in both gas transport (ENGIE) and electricity distribution (EDF/ENEDIS) contexts. He is member of IEC TC57 and TC65 representing ENDIS on 62351 and 62443 norms. In parallel with his position in ENEDIS, he is Professor at Paris Sud University teaching database administration and cyber security at master’s level.

Gaetano Sanacore

Scientific Director of National Observatory for Cyber Security of Energy grid, TC57 WG10

Graduated in Electronic Engineering - Telecommunications/Remote Control Specialty - at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Palermo. From September 2019 to today OT Security Manager in the Group Security & Cyber ​​​​Defense Department of the A2A group with the task of coordinating the OT / ICS / SCADA / IIoT Cyber ​​​​Security and implementing the Industrial cyber security strategies and awareness of the group. Previous international experience of over fifteen years as Engineer Manager of design and commissioning in Power Plants for SCADA/IoT/IIoT/OT and Cyber ​​​​Security Systems at Ansaldo Energia S.p.a. In 2011 obtained the 2nd level Master in "ICT security" Engineering faculty - University of Genoa and Lead Auditor ISO 27001. From March 2015 to date member of the Scientific Committee for IT security of electricity networks at the UNIGE Engineering faculty where he currently teaches “Cyber ​​​​Security of SCADA Systems” of the II Level Master in “Cyber ​​​​Security & Data Protection”. From March 2016 to today member of the IEC/CENELEC committee, in particular "CT 57" on Expert Management System (EMS) and Cyber ​​​​Sec. Task force. Since 2015 scientific director of the National Observatory for Cyber ​​​​Security, Resilience and Business Continuity of Electrical Systems.

Kristian Alsing

Cybersecurity Executive, Independent

Kristian has developed cyber security and resilience capabilities for 20 years. He is a business-driven leader, with experience in end-to-end security solutions; delivery and operations across a variety of highly regulated industry sectors. Last two years he’s driven transformative security programmes in an energy, utilities and natural resources cyber business in a major global Systems Integrator and consultancy. Here he covered cyber transformation, MSS and consulting including in most areas of the smart grid. Kristian blogs and speaks on a variety of cyber topics. Kristian holds a number of security certifications, a Master’s and Bachelors in Business Studies/ Comms. and a Diploma in BCM. He has spent 12 years freelancing in music journalism.

Marco Enselmo

Digital Platform Architect, E-REDES 

Marco Anselmo is graduated as an IT Manager and Computation at the Lisbon Institute for Management and Tech in 2003. He is a Tech professional with over 20 years of tech industry experience, with both knowledge across several areas within the Utility Industry and technologies from the Automation Industry. He has worked as a senior consultant at CGI S.A. in the business area E&U Technology Support and Projects in Lisbon, Portugal, where he was responsible for several projects in energy generation process data, generation analytics and the convergence between IT/OT boarders from a cybersecurity perspective during more than 15 years. He moves recently to the Portuguese DSO, E-Redes, where he acts as a Platform Architect on Grids, IoT and Edge Computing projects and initiatives.

Matija Naglic

Business Developer System Operations, TenneT 

Matija Naglic received a M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ljubljana in 2011 and a Ph.D. degree from Delft University of Technology in 2020. From 2011 to 2014, he worked as a researcher at the Milan Vidmar Electric Power Research Institute and from 2014 to 2019 at Delft University of Technology. In 2020, he joined TenneT TSO to work on control room of the future and system resilience topics. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and part of CIGRE and ENTSO-E working groups.

Peter Lyck Ingerslev

Chief Principal Architect, Energinet

Step into the world of innovation and digitalization with the Chief Principal Architect at Energinet's captivating Innovation and Digitalisation Initiative. With a knack for analyzing, planning, and executing enterprise strategies, including operational technology security development, I am on a mission to guide organizations towards a more digitized and secure future. Join me as we unlock the potential of new and existing technologies, breathing life into control systems for green transmission while safeguarding against cyber threats. Together, let's embark on an exciting journey to embrace sustainability, protect critical infrastructure, and shape a brighter, more resilient tomorrow. Get ready to be part of a dynamic and inclusive community driving positive change through the power of technology.

Razvan Tudor

Director of Risk Management, Electrica

Răzvan is a seasoned risk management professional, entrepreneur and also former journalist. But before all these, he has been, is and remains a communicator and a very inquisitive storyteller. Razvan has a vast experience in various industries as a risk management professional such as commodity exchanges, oil & gas, insurance and for the last 6 years in energy. Most recent experiences are with Hidroelectrica (biggest hydro-power producer in Romania) and Electrica (listed integrated energy company acting in distribution, supply, production and services). Over the last years, he presented over 100 dedicated trainings and discourses, in extremely varied fields such as: Financial Risk Management, Risk Management Fundamentals, Introduction to Risk Management, Trading of Derivatives (the options), Enterprise Risk Management, ISO 27001.

Shawn McBurnie

Director IT/OT Cybersecurity and Compliance, Northland Power

As Head of IT/OT Security & Compliance at Northland Power, Shawn is responsible for leading the company’s global IT and OT cyber security programs while ensuring compliance to applicable critical infrastructure and data protection regulations.  He joined in March 2020. Shawn has over 15 years of experience in various IT operational and cyber security roles in the electricity and financial services sectors.  He has experience successfully implementing modern security controls in OT environments in both greenfield projects as well as live environments.  Prior to Northland Power, Shawn was the lead of the cyber security team at Toronto Hydro – one of the largest electricity distribution companies in Canada. Shawn holds a Master of Science in Cyber Security with Distinction from the University of Liverpool, a Bachelor of Commerce in IT Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, and a Diploma with Honours in Computer Systems Technology from Seneca College.  He also holds several certifications including CISSP, ISSAP, CISA, and CDPSE.

Tania Wallis

Research Associate, University of Glasgow

Tania is a researcher of supply chain cyber security, across the energy, rail, aviation & water sectors, at the University of Glasgow. She is working to translate research into impact, to progress multiple-sector approaches to the challenge of overseeing, managing, and influencing the cyber security of supply chains to critical infrastructure services. She is facilitating working groups, across industry and academia, to co-produce cybersecurity guidance for critical infrastructure. A Chartered Engineer, she previously worked as a systems engineer in the telecoms sector integrating people, processes and technology in the design and implementation of network operations centres.