Smart grid solutions and energy systems

The shift towards a carbon-neutral society alters the energy system drastically. The energy mix is already changing towards renewable energy resources, such as wind and solar power, that are often weather-dependent and have varying outputs. In addition, novel technologies, like SMRs, could alter the status quo of current markets. Smart grid technologies play a crucial part in managing changing load profiles and improving the reliability and resilience of these new energy systems. 

Simulations and AI-powered forecasting can help optimise energy systems and improve their efficiency. However, designing and implementing cost-effective smart grid solutions requires a deep understanding of energy systems as a whole.

Understanding the energy transition demands the ability to model it. VTT builds mathematical representations of energy systems at every scale – from individual sites and stakeholders to national, European and global levels – covering both technical performance and economic viability.

These models address questions that matter to investors, policymakers and system operators alike, such as: 

• How does one country’s decision to phase out nuclear power affect neighbouring energy markets? 

• How profitable would a hydrogen infrastructure investment be under different export and import scenarios? 

• What grid reinforcements are needed to meet a 2040 electrification target?

• How to implement the next generation of district heating and cooling?  

We can help you with:  

• Operational planning

• Intersectoral long-term optimisation

• Energy systems optimisation

• Site or actor-specific optimisation and simulation. 

With the changing operating environment, business models also need to evolve as new opportunities arise from approaches such as sector integration. VTT helps you simulate different operating conditions and navigate the transition. 

As technologies evolve, policies shift, and markets respond in unpredictable ways, scenario analysis is essential for making long-term energy decisions. 

VTT uses models to represent the operating environment and examine how different policies, technologies and market conditions perform under a range of futures. Our work spans time horizons from short-term market dynamics to 30–40-year infrastructure outlooks, helping you answer questions such as: when will a new technology become profitable to invest in, and what infrastructure will be needed to reach a given target? 

Key approaches include Modelling to Generate Alternatives (MGA), which explores diverse solution pathways rather than optimising for a single outcome.  

We can also model resilience to examine how energy systems and societies withstand disruption, including fair transition analysis. 

We also recognise that the energy transition is not purely a technical or market challenge. It is a socio-technical shift where human behaviour, social structures and institutional arrangements shape outcomes just as much as technology and economics. 

While modelling and planning address the long view, control and optimisation focus on the operational decisions that determine day-to-day performance. When should a heat pump run to minimise costs while maintaining comfort? How can an industrial facility balance its own production against the grid? 

We address questions related to:

• Market integration

• Value at risk

• Assets optimisation

• Integrated systems of local controls.  

Our solutions already serve a wide range of operators: industrial facilities, supermarkets, greenhouses, municipalities and energy communities.

AI is woven throughout VTT’s energy systems work, applied wherever data-driven methods can improve decision-making, efficiency and security.  

Key AI application areas include:

• Forecasting – predicting demand, generation and asset performance to support both planning and real-time operations

• Automation blueprints – architectures for automated and data-driven real-time energy management

• Anomaly detection – identifying deviations in equipment before they become costly failures

• Operational efficiency and asset management – optimising the performance and lifespan of energy infrastructure

• Predictive maintenance – anticipating equipment issues to reduce downtime and maintenance costs

• Cybersecurity – verifying signal authenticity and integrity within critical energy systems, ensuring that communications are genuine and timely.  

Thanks to our teams’ decades of accumulated expertise, we can start delivering from day one. We’ve developed and refined our modelling tools and datasets over many years, so we don’t need to start from scratch. 

Our multidisciplinary team spans energy systems, ICT, AI and data architecture, enabling us to tackle challenges that cross traditional boundaries. Our team can go beyond concept validation to pilot and implement solutions in live environments. This practical orientation is a key differentiator from purely academic research. 

We have active presence in standards committees and industry networks across Europe, the US and beyond, with regulatory and policy expertise spanning multiple countries, as well as deep knowledge of technologies such as district heating. 

Our deliverables are tailored to each project and client need. Typical outputs include:

• Reports and decision-support documentation

• Prototypes of working models

• Digital and software architecture presentations

• Technology validation and piloting in real-world environments

• Lab-based assessments of new devices and technologies.