Future of Utilities Summit Amsterdam 2025

As moderator across multiple sessions, Juliette Foster guided discussions that brought clarity and focus to the industry’s most urgent challenges. From opening the summit with keynote debates on affordability, sustainability, and security, to steering conversations on storage, flexibility, digitalisation, heat, and affordability, her facilitation ensured complex themes were unpacked with precision and authority. 

Event Overview 

The Amsterdam summit welcomed over 1,000 attendees and more than 120 speakers across two days. It was a showcase of how utilities are reshaping themselves to deliver the energy transition - balancing affordability, sustainability, and resilience while embracing digitalisation and new technologies. 

Why this summit mattered 

• Energy transition blueprint: Leaders debated how to balance affordability, sustainability, and security across Europe’s energy mix. 

• Innovation in practice: Storage, flexibility, and digitalisation were presented not as abstract concepts but as live strategies shaping the sector. 

• Global perspective: Speakers from across Europe shared insights on regulation, infrastructure, and customer engagement. 

• Future readiness: The summit highlighted how utilities must prepare for decentralisation, new business models, and affordability challenges. 

Key themes and insights 

1. Forging the energy transition blueprint 

• Vattenfall, Octopus Energy, and SAP stressed the need for integrated ecosystems that balance security with sustainability. 

• Renewables diversification and interconnection across Europe were seen as pivotal to resilience. 

• Technology innovation was positioned as the backbone of modernising infrastructure. 

2. Storage and decentralisation 

• EDP Renewables and Circulor highlighted storage as the enabler of independence and transparency. 

• Panels explored how batteries, thermal storage, and community initiatives can bridge the gap between user needs and grid stability. 

• Financing models and supply chain resilience were flagged as critical to scaling solutions. 

3. Flexibility 

• Axpo, ESRI, Statnett, and Bamboo Energy emphasised that flexibility is the cornerstone of future energy systems. 

• Success depends on integrating customers, grids, and markets — with microgrids and distributed resources playing a growing role. 

• Scalability and cost considerations remain challenges, but digital platforms are opening new pathways. 

4. Digitalisation 

• E.ON Italia, Kaluza, Vandebron, and Siemens Energy showcased how AI, data, and responsible tech are transforming utilities. 

• Legacy systems must be upgraded without disruption, while regulation must evolve to support digital frameworks. 

• The human side of transformation — bringing teams along — was highlighted as essential. 

5. Heat decarbonisation 

• Case studies from Vienna and E.ON Sweden demonstrated innovative approaches to electrification and hydrogen integration. 

• British Gas and Cogen Europe stressed that customer trust, incentives, and regulatory frameworks are key to scaling lowcarbon heating. 

• Hydrogen was positioned as a complementary solution for hardtoabate needs. 

6. Affordability 

• Octopus Energy, OVO, and A2A debated how to deliver the transition at a cost consumers can bear. 

• Community energy, tariff innovation, and digitalisation were seen as ways to reduce costs and spread benefits. 

• Policy frameworks must ensure vulnerable consumers are not left behind. 

Overall impact 

The Amsterdam summit underscored that the energy transition is at a critical juncture: 

• Technology and digitalisation are essential to resilience and customer engagement. 

• Storage and flexibility are nonnegotiable for balancing grids and enabling renewables. 

• Affordability and trust must remain central to ensure the transition is inclusive. 

• Collaboration across Europe is vital to deliver interconnected, secure, and sustainable systems. 

Summit Conclusion 

The Future of Utilities Summit closed with a clear recognition: the path to a sustainable energy future will be defined by how well utilities integrate innovation, affordability, and customer trust into every decision.