Action points to deliver energy security across Europe

How do industry players define energy security in an extremely volatile world, and what are they doing to achieve it? Kelvin Ross went to Brussels to find out.

Security, sustainability, and affordability – the so-called energy trilemma, a phrase first used by the World Energy Council in 2011.

It spent the next decade being kicked around like a slightly deflated football by policymakers, with few taking a realistic ‘shot-on-goal’ to tackle the trilemma.

But in 2022, the security part of the trio gave European countries a klaxon-loud wake-up call. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its knock-on effects on the energy market proved just how unsecure many states were.

So, what, in 2025, is the definition of energy security? How do we get it? And how do we keep it?
I went to Brussels to ask several industry players these questions. Their answers were frank, illuminating, and underlined by a sense of urgency.

“These days, energy security is inseparable from independence… independence from any import that we are strongly dependent on as we have been in the past,” said Sabine Erlinghagen, chief executive of Grid Software at Siemens.

More about energy security:
Eurelectric calls for clean electrification-based European Energy Security Strategy
Fatih Birol and Dan Jørgensen call for energy efficiency focus in ‘low-trust’ world

Christian Buchel, Chairman of Union Française de l'Electricité, said security of supply “is about investment, capex and all of the value chain, from generation to the customer through the grid”. And he warned that “what happened in Spain and Portugal recently” emphasises that “we have to learn every day to guarantee security of supply”.

A view echoed by Andrés Acosta, Director of Innovation at LevelTen Energy: “To have energy security, we need to use the resources available to us. That means interconnections, market alignment and integrating the technologies needed to be able to utilise those resources the moment they're available. And transport them in time and space to where they're needed.”

And Duncan Burt, Chief Strategic Growth Officer at Reactive Technologies, emphasised that security must be future proof: “Security is knowing where your energy is going to come from today but also knowing your energy options in 20- and 30-years’ time. That's fundamental to a robust economy.

"And you've also got to think about a much more distributed world in which you've got millions of devices potentially participating in energy and electricity supply. That poses questions.”

Watch my film to hear these thought leaders expand on their definitions of energy security.