Jochen L. Cremer

Jochen L. Cremer

he/him

Electrical Power Engineer with Computer Science Expertise, PhD Imperial College London, MSc BSc BSc RWTH Aachen University

Beyond the Blackout: Building Resilient Grids for an Interconnected Europe

Date:

At the IEEE ISGT Europe 2025 conference in Malta, the special panel “Beyond the Blackout: Building Resilient Grids for an Interconnected Europe” will address one of the most pressing challenges for Europe’s energy transition: how to safeguard electricity supply against large-scale failures. Motivated by the recent Iberian blackout, the session will explore how extreme weather, cyber threats, renewable integration, and cross-border interdependencies may combine into cascading disruptions with severe societal and economic consequences.

The session will be chaired by Jochen Cremer (TU Delft) and bring together distinguished experts from across Europe:

  • Lina Bertling Tjernberg (KTH, Sweden) – reliability and asset management in power systems,
  • Luis Badesa (UPM, Spain) – economics and operation of grids under decarbonisation,
  • Mathaios Panteli (University of Cyprus) – resilience analysis and cascading failure modelling,
  • Mónica Aragüés Peñalba (UPC, Spain) – data-driven analytics for resilient grids.

The panel will discuss:

  • Vulnerabilities exposed by the Iberian blackout and lessons for interconnected grids,
  • The use of probabilistic risk assessment, resilience metrics, and stochastic planning for future grid design,
  • The role of digitalisation, forecasting, automation, and AI-driven protection systems to prevent cascading failures,
  • How TSOs and DSOs can improve coordination in crisis situations,
  • The evolution of policy and regulation to enable flexibility, cooperation, and rapid response.

The discussion will also connect to ongoing European research projects, such as SPARROW, R²D², ATTEST, SmartNet, and HVDC-WISE, which develop digital twins, resilience toolkits, TSO–DSO coordination schemes, and HVDC-based architectures for robust hybrid grids.

By convening this panel, ISGT Europe 2025 will provide a platform to outline strategies for resilient, adaptive, and cooperative power systems. The expected outcome is to strengthen the ability to anticipate and manage extreme events while ensuring electricity for critical services—key to protecting societies and economies in an interconnected Europe.