The world is in turmoil. Armed conflicts such as Russia’s war against Ukraine or, more recently, India’s skirmishes with Pakistan. Added to this is a growing number of authoritarian or autocratic regimes that are replacing democratic conventions with absurd, often economic ego trips. We must accept that Russia has switched to the dark side of power, at least for the foreseeable future. But now the US has also joined this dubious league – to the detriment of the global economy and democracy. Tariffs, trade disputes, embargoes and energy conflicts are increasing global uncertainty, jeopardising global supply chains and threatening Europe’s security of supply.
For Ralf Werner, CIO/CDO of Open Grid Europe (OGE), the answer to these multiple and multipolar upheavals can only be that Europe must become strategically independent, act with digital sovereignty and still leave room for multilateral cooperation and democratic values in order to secure stability, resilience and independence not only on its own continent, but also to send a signal to the world that Europe is strong.
This applies to all societies, political systems and industries, but it is particularly true for core industries, known in Germany as critical infrastructures. The energy sector is one of these industries and a key industry for many, if not all, other industries, which cannot organise their day-to-day business or prepare for the future without affordable and available energy.
To accelerate the energy transition, which is still necessary, Europe also needs digital sovereignty in its critical energy infrastructure. To achieve this, we need to build AI-driven, agent-based platforms that enable secure, cross-sector data exchange. To do this, we must also (re)gain technological control in an area dominated by non-European hyperscalers: data infrastructures, the cloud and AI. Europe needs sovereign, open energy platforms to reduce dependency on US and Chinese tech companies and regain control over critical energy infrastructure.
