manufacturing lead times by up to 3x, while commissioning and on-site acceptance testing can be completed up to twice as fast, reducing time to value and deployment risk.
Once operational, continuous software updates and datadriven insights allow systems to optimize over time, steadily improving efficiency, reliability, and performance. At the same time, intelligence distributed across the network strengthens resilience, enabling faster response to disturbances and greater stability amid increasing grid volatility.
Real world impact across sectors
As software-defined power moves from concept to capability, its impact is already being felt across industries where reliability, efficiency, and adaptability are critical.
• Data Centers: With regulations like the EU Energy Efficiency Directive, and growing demand for sustainable data centers, operators face mounting pressure to optimize energy use and reduce carbon footprints. While realtime monitoring and predictive analytics exist today, the alerts and data they provide often aren’ t actionable. Operators also have to navigate complex, human-intensive diagnostic processes to address
At its core, softwaredefined power embeds intelligence to hardware, fully managed by software.
issues, limiting efficiency and responsiveness.
Intelligent power systems change this by not only detecting potential failures but also providing actionable insights and automated responses, helping maximize uptime, improving energy efficiency, and scaling operations with far less complexity. This will also be crucial in helping Europe scale data center growth and achieve its goal of tripling data center capacity in five to seven years, under the AI Continent Action Plan.
• Homes: From rooftop solar to EVs and home energy storage, households are becoming micro energy hubs. At the end of 2024, there were an estimated 3.8 million Home Energy management Systems( HEMS) installed in European homes. And as technology becomes more affordable and accessible, this number is expected to reach 10.6 million at the end of 2029.
Software-defined power intelligently orchestrates these assets, balancing demand with local generation and grid conditions. The result is greater efficiency, lower energy costs, and reduced reliance on centralized utilities.
• Hospitals and Critical Facilities: Following large-scale outages in 2025 in countries like Spain and Portugal, Europe has a renewed focus on resilience. In environments where power reliability can be a matter of life and death, software-defined systems provide continuous, real-time management of backup power, medical devices, and critical loads, ensuring uninterrupted operations during outages or grid fluctuations.
Charting a path for europe’ s energy future
Europe stands at the forefront of the global energy transition, and the adoption of softwaredefined power is central to this transformation. It marks a fundamental shift in how electrical infrastructure is designed and operated. Intelligence now comes from code, not copper. By embedding intelligence into every layer of the grid, Europe can create a more flexible, efficient, and resilient energy system, one that supports decarbonization, empowers consumers, and strengthens energy security.
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Issue 79 PECM 21