For years, the conversation focused on whether there was a business case for industry to electrify – and at Eurelectric we’ve shown that yes, for many industrial segments, clean electricity already outcompetes fossil fuels.
Today, another energy crisis is yet again showing that industry’s dependence on imported fossil fuels exposes it to price volatility. It is therefore clear that industrial electrification is the way forward to staying competitive on the global stage. The question now is how to make electrification happen at scale and at the necessary speed.
Europe’s industrial electrification story had hit a bit of a rough patch, not because of lack of technology or ambition. Because, like many relationships, it’s complicated.
So, over the past year, the power sector decided to listen. Through a series of roundtables with industrial players across Europe, we asked a simple question: what’s actually holding electrification back?
The result is Eurelectric’s new report, Power Couples: enhancing Industrial Competitiveness through electrification. Drawing on market analysis covering evidence from 61 companies, and 30 real-world projects, the report argues that overcoming the existing barriers requires a different approach. The industrial and power sectors need to act like “Power Couples”.
Because electrification succeeds when industry, electricity providers and technology partners move together.
As Catherine Fiamma MacGregor, Vice-President of Eurelectric and CEO of ENGIE notes:
“Electrification is a cornerstone of Europe’s industrial competitiveness and energy transition. To unlock its potential, we need a more integrated approach that connects market design, infrastructure and investment frameworks. When these dimensions are aligned early, electrification becomes not only technically feasible but economically compelling, paving the way for scalable, replicable and cost-effective projects across Europe.”
The good news is that examples of industrial Power Couples already exists: the report identifies five case studies around Europe that can already be replicated.
We have a look at them in this week’s #FridayFeature.
The missing link in industrial electrification
Electric technologies can improve efficiency, reduce exposure to volatile fossil fuel prices and strengthen industrial resilience. Yet deployment remains slow.
Many industrial projects are technically feasible today but struggle to move from pilot phase to large-scale implementation. The challenge is no longer technology readiness. It is ensuring that market signals, infrastructure development, financing frameworks and policy conditions align.
This is where Power Couples seek to bridge the gap.
Rather than focusing solely on individual technologies, the report examines the wider ecosystem required to make electrification commercially viable.
From fragmented decisions to shared solutions
A key pattern emerged from the roundtables with stakeholders: too often, industrial electrification projects are approached in isolation, and some industrial players would not even know where to start. The Power Couples model turns that approach on its head.
Instead of every industrial player fighting its own battle for grid access and clean power contracts, a Power Couples approach means bringing together industrial customers, electricity providers and technology partners from the outset to jointly design energy use, infrastructure needs and investment strategies.
One partner anchors long-term clean power, another shifts demand when prices spike, a third helps balance the grid. All of them share the upside.
Think of it as the difference between everyone building their own road to the same destination versus agreeing to build one efficient road together.
The report finds that projects are significantly more likely to succeed when electricity demand, clean power supply, infrastructure planning and flexibility services are coordinated early rather than developed separately.
As Markus Rauramo, Eurelectric President and CEO of Fortum, explains:
“Turning fragmented decisions into coordinated, system-level delivery is the key to solve the full electrification deployment challenge. Europe now needs investment predictability, faster grid build-out and integrated delivery models that can scale quickly. This will unlock a more resilient, competitive and investment-ready industrial economy.”
Five blueprints already working across Europe
Importantly, the report does not present Power Couples as a theoretical concept.
It identifies five replicable industrial partnership models already operating across Europe, offering practical blueprints that can be scaled across sectors and regions.
These are not isolated “hero projects”. They are proven models that combine technology, commercial structures, infrastructure coordination and risk-sharing in ways that can be reproduced elsewhere.
1. Urban multi-vector systems – United Kingdom
Exemplified by the Silvertown ECTOgrid project, this model integrates electricity, heating, cooling and storage at district level. Rather than deploying separate assets for each user, multiple participants share infrastructure and optimise energy flows together, creating greater efficiency and lowering overall system costs. The model is particularly effective in areas with high demand density and strong local coordination.
2. Data centres as grid assets – Ireland
Projects such as Microsoft‘s grid-interactive UPS model demonstrate how data centres can become active participants in the electricity system. Existing backup infrastructure can provide balancing services and flexibility to the grid without compromising operational reliability. The opportunity lies not only in technology, but in creating the market access, certification and control systems needed to unlock this value at scale.
3. City-scale heat reuse platforms – Sweden
Stockholm Exergi’s district heating model shows how waste heat from data centres can become a valuable energy resource rather than a by-product. By integrating excess heat into urban heating networks, the model creates a new revenue stream while reducing overall energy consumption. Long-term heat demand and established district heating infrastructure make this approach particularly scalable in cities.
4. Service-based process heat models – Portugal
Heineken’s Vialonga brewery project illustrates how electrification can be delivered through innovative commercial arrangements. Combining renewable electricity, thermal storage and third-party ownership structures, the model provides low-carbon steam without requiring major upfront capital expenditure from industrial customers. By removing financial and operational risks, it helps accelerate adoption.
5. High-temperature industrial transformation model – Austria
Projects such as Wienerberger’s electrified kiln and heat-pump integration demonstrate how even hard-to-abate industrial processes can be electrified. Rather than simply replacing fossil fuels, these projects redesign core production processes and require close collaboration between industrial operators, technology providers and policymakers. While more complex, they offer some of the largest long-term competitiveness and decarbonisation benefits.
Across all five models, the common thread is collaboration. By aligning clean power supply, industrial demand, infrastructure planning and flexibility services from the outset, these Power Couples create stronger business cases, lower system-wide costs and greater confidence for investors.
A competitiveness agenda for the electrification era
As the European Commission prepares its Electrification Action Plan, expected in July, the findings underscore the scale of the challenge ahead. Europe seeks new ways to strengthen industrial competitiveness amid growing geopolitical uncertainty, increasing global competition and continued dependence on imported fossil fuels.
The report suggests that competitiveness will increasingly depend not only on access to clean electricity, but also on the ability to coordinate investment across the entire energy ecosystem.
This requires faster grid deployment, more predictable investment frameworks, stronger market signals and closer cooperation between electricity providers and industrial customers.
The Power Couples approach offers a practical framework for doing exactly that.
This week’s edition written by:
Erin Kalejs – Strategic Communications, Eurelectric
With technical input from:
Chiara Carminucci – Press & Media Relations Advisor, Eurelectric
This blog post was originally published as part of Eurelectric’s LinkedIn Friday Features. Subscribe here to stay updated and never miss an edition.
Disclaimer: This article is for communication purposes only and may not reflect Eurelectric positions. Any positions taken in this article shall not be attributable to Eurelectric’s official positioning. Official Eurelectric positions are reflected only in position papers published here.