Videos

VAREN (Vegetation and Asset Recognition for Electrical Network) is an open source library from Hydro-Québec's research centre that turns mobile LiDAR point clouds of overhead distribution networks into information utilities can act on directly. It packages four purpose-built algorithms: a point cloud classifier for power network assets, an overhead span extractor, a mathematical reconstruction method for heavily obstructed power lines, and a vegetation encroachment detector.

Together, these give utilities a reusable foundation for LiDAR-based grid analytics instead of building asset-mapping and vegetation-risk pipelines from scratch. In this session, Guillaume Houle and Mohamed Gaha introduce VAREN and walk through how each of the four algorithms works, and Philippe Massicotte demos the full pipeline end to end - from raw point cloud to actionable output.

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Keynote: Pooling Code, Keeping Control - Nathalie Lemaître, Managing Director, Customers Systems Innovation Division, RTE & Sébastien Scarmure, Group CIO, Elia Group

As Europe's transmission system operators pursue digitalisation at unprecedented speed, how that software is built and sourced has become a question of performance, innovation and technological resilience. In this keynote, Nathalie Lemaître, Managing Director of the Customers, Systems and Innovation Division at RTE, will discuss why open source has moved from a fringe tactic to a strategic imperative for TSOs across Europe. Drawing on experience deploying open source technologies in mission-critical grid operations, she'll share how collaborative, vendor-neutral software is helping European grid operators move fast on innovation, share development costs, reduce lock-in and strategic dependency on proprietary, non-European technology stacks, and retain control over critical infrastructure. Expect a candid look at tradeoffs, governance challenges, and cultural shifts required to make open source work at the scale of Europe’s interconnected grids.

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Who Builds the Tools? Creating Pathways for Women in Open Source Energy Modelling - Tosin George, Open Energy Transition & Ekaterina Fedotova, Open Energy Transition, PyPSA-meets-Earth

The open source energy community is building the tools that will shape the global energy transition. But who is building those tools and who is being left out of that conversation?

Women remain significantly underrepresented in open source energy modelling worldwide. This is not just an equity issue. It is a capability gap. When the people building energy planning tools do not reflect the diversity of the communities they serve, the solutions themselves fall short.

This session introduces a first-of-its-kind mentorship programme designed to bring more African women into open source energy modelling, developed in partnership between LF Energy, the World Resources Institute, Centre for Net Zero and Open Energy Transition.

The programme builds structured, supported pathways connecting aspiring women energy experts with experienced practitioners. Crucially, it is designed not just to prepare women for the open source community but to prepare the open source community to welcome and sustain them.

Panellists will share how the programme was conceived, how the partnership was built, what the curriculum looks like, and what the community can do to support and sustain it.

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Redispatch Without Black Boxes: Load Forecasting With OpenSTEF at E.ON - Alexander Geiseler, E.ON Digital Technology

For reliable and cost-efficient distribution grid operation and redispatch management, accurate short-term forecasting is a core prerequisite. At E.ON, we originally relied on vendor-built “black box” forecasting solutions and experienced the familiar trade-offs: slow iteration cycles, limited transparency, and dependence on external roadmaps. In this talk, I’ll share our journey to an open-source target picture for transformer load forecasting in a redispatch context. After a quick intro to the redispatch problem and our system setup, I’ll walk through our OpenSTEF-based approach. I’ll then present results from a real benchmark against an external model and the practical lessons learned; what mattered, what didn’t, and where open source helped us move faster. Finally, I’ll cover the organizational path: how we navigated compliance and governance with our Open Source Office to turn from user into contributor.

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Building OSPOs in Practice: Early Lessons From Cresym, 50Hertz / Elia and TenneT - Jonas van den Bogaard, Alliander; Sven Fritzsche, Elia Group - Elia Belgium and 50 Hertz; Geethu Joseph, CRESYM; Hugo Pfister, TenneT Netherlands

As the energy sector undergoes rapid digital transformation, Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) are emerging as strategic enablers within grid operators. Building open source readiness requires more than just technical adoption. It demands cultural and operational transformation. From aligning legal, finance, and executive leadership to equipping engineering teams with the right tools and practices, OSPOs play a critical role in guiding this shift.

This panel brings together OSPO leaders from Cresym, 50Hertz / Elia, and TenneT to explore how open source is reshaping collaboration, innovation, and the digital landscape in the utility sector. As several of these OSPOs are relatively new, the discussion will offer fresh perspectives on the challenges and opportunities of establishing and scaling such capabilities. Panelists will share firsthand experiences in launching and growing OSPOs, navigating internal alignment, and fostering cross-organizational collaboration.

Moderator:
Jonas van den Bogaard, Alliander

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CapEx, OpEx, and Open Source - Michael Dorner & Maximilian Capraro, Capraro Dorner PartG

Regulatory frameworks in the energy sector often favor capital expenditures (CapEx) over operational expenses (OpEx), creating a structural disincentive for TSOs and DSOs to develop and publish open-source software. In this talk, we unpack the root causes of this bias and present preliminary findings from our Linux Foundation–funded research. Finally, we outline pathways to realign incentives and enable broader adoption of open source for energy infrastructure.

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Phlowers: An Ecosystem for Physical Simulations of Overhead Lines - Jérémy Wang & Adrien Goeller, RTE

Understanding, simulating and predicting the behavior of overhead lines and their supporting structures (including electrical towers) is essential for securing grid maintenance and extending asset life. Phlowers provides tools to achieve this in a simple way, despite the complexity of the underlying algorithms.

Phlowers is an Open Source ecosystem that brings mechanical and thermal modeling of overhead lines to engineers, researchers and operators, including those working offline. In the future, it will integrate the modeling of supporting structures (pylons/towers) to simulate mechanical constraints and interactions within the grid.

The ecosystem currently includes Python libraries for simulations and an offline web application called Stellar. It enables users to customize models, integrate their own data and adapt tools to operational needs. It will also support large-scale batch computations to assess maintenance policies, simulate multiple scenarios and optimize long-term asset management strategies.

In this session, we will explore its architecture, use cases and contribution to innovation in grid asset management.

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Keynote: Running the Agentic Grid: From Open Models to Operating Model - Yu Jiang, Managing Director and Data & AI Practice Lead, Sia

Europe's energy transition has hit an inconvenient truth: we cannot build grid fast enough. Investment needs reach €584 billion by 2030 and €1.2 trillion by 2040, yet permitting still takes the better part of a decade, roughly 1,700 GW of renewables sit waiting in connection queues, and in 2024 Germany alone spent €2.8 billion simply managing congestion. When you cannot pour concrete fast enough, the smartest capacity you have is the capacity you already own, and the lever to unlock it is software that is increasingly open and increasingly agentic.

Drawing on real deployments in congestion management, this keynote looks past the hype to where agentic AI is genuinely entering grid operations. The decisive question is not whose model is cleverest, but who is ready to run it: who has the data, the governance, and the operating model to trust AI in the control room. Because the grids that win the transition will not be the ones that buy the most technology. They will be the ones ready to run it.

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Keynote: Welcome and Opening Remarks - Alex Thornton, Executive Director, LF Energy

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