Electrification is already a competitiveness advantage for European industry but is not scaling fast enough, according to a new Eurelectric report launched at the Power Summit. Drawing on evidence from 61 companies and 30 concrete projects, it sets out what makes an industrial electrification project work and what holds deployment back.
The report identifies five replicable models it calls “Power Couples”: integrated industrial partnerships that jointly optimise demand, low-carbon supply, infrastructure and flexibility. In such a model, one load anchors long-term clean power, another shifts demand when prices spike and a third provides fast balancing, with all parties sharing infrastructure, risk and system value. They operate through commercial structures such as long-term power purchase agreements, heat or energy as a service, waste-heat offtake, flexibility revenues and blended public-private financing.
To draw up the models, the power sector engaged industry from three segments: low- and medium-temperature heat, energy-intensive industries and data centres. The report frames better coordination across market design, grids and investment frameworks as the key to unlocking electrification at scale.
“Turning fragmented decisions into coordinated, system-level delivery is the key to solve the full electrification deployment challenge,” said Eurelectric President and Fortum chief executive Markus Rauramo, pointing to the need for investment predictability, faster grid build-out and integrated delivery models. Eurelectric Vice-President and ENGIE chief executive Catherine MacGregor said connecting market design, infrastructure and investment frameworks early makes electrification not only feasible but economically compelling.
For Baltic countries electrifying industry and adding wind capacity, the message is that turbines and grids deliver most when demand, supply and infrastructure are planned together rather than in isolation.
