User your QR code to check-in to the workshop and enjoy a nice coffee before the sessions start!

The welcome coffee in sponsored by alfanar.

Since 2022, Layla Sawyer is the Secretary General of CurrENT, the voice of innovative grid technology companies in Europe.

She advocates for policies that will speed up the deployment of innovative grid technologies to support the mass uptake of renewables, increase European Competitiveness, and phase out fossil fuels. She was previously Head of Business Development at smartEn, where she worked on demand-side flexibility, digitalisation and the future of prosumer models. She has also worked at Urgenda, a national climate NGOs in the Netherlands, advocating for more urgency in the Dutch energy transition, and she spent a year in the Philippines working for a social investment fund specialized in climate resilient enterprises. She studied Sustainable Business and Innovation at the University of Utrecht, with a special focus on energy and material transitions and p2p energy trading.

Ulrich Adam, Director General, ORGALIM

Sponsored by alfanar.

Panelists

• Hannes De Schrijver (Fluvius, Belgium)
• Luca Lo Schiavo (ERRA, Italy)
• Alexis Meletiou (European Commission, Greece)
• Peter Vermaat (DSO Entity, Belgium)

The coffee break is sponsored by alfanar.

Inne Mertens is CEO of Brussels distribution network operator Sibelga.

She holds a masters degree of the University of Leuven as an Electrical Engineer. She began her career at Electrabel in 1998. She accompanied the liberalization of the energy market in Wallonia in the early 2000s. Between 2009 and 2021, she was a member of the Executive Committee of ORES, the Walloon distribution network operator, where she was responsible for the Market & Customers department. She is also member of the board of Atrias and Synergrid and Chairman of the Board at the Royal Belgian Society for Energy.

Sponsored by Sibelga.

Prof. Dr. Frederik Vandendriessche is Professor of Energy Law at Ghent University, specializing in EU and Belgian energy market regulation, network governance, and renewable energy law.

He is also a partner and attorney at Stibbe (Brussels), advising network operators, public authorities and private clients on complex energy transactions, regulatory compliance, and litigation. His work bridges academic research and practical legal expertise in modern energy systems.

Panelists

• Akhtar Hussain Javed (Alliander, Netherlands)
• James Matthys-Donnadieu (ELIA, Belgium)
• Matthias Pletinckx (FastNed, Belgium)
• Michel Verschuere (Yuso, Belgium)