Industrial electrification could become a key driver of Europe’s competitiveness, but scaling it up will require closer coordination between industry, power suppliers, grid operators and investors, according to a new report presented by Eurelectric at the Power Summit in Helsinki.

Developed in collaboration with Accenture, the study draws on evidence from 61 companies, 30 industrial projects and more than 3,500 market signals, concluding that electrification is no longer constrained by technology readiness but by the ability of the wider system to deliver projects at scale.

According to Eurelectric, Europe’s future industrial competitiveness will increasingly depend on integrated models capable of coordinating electricity demand, low-carbon power supply, grid infrastructure, storage and flexibility.

Five replicable “Power Couples” models

The report identifies five replicable collaboration models, grouped under the concept of “Power Couples”, which aim to jointly optimise industrial demand, renewable power supply, infrastructure and system flexibility.

These include partnerships between energy-intensive industries and renewable power developers backed by long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs), electrified heat projects using heat pumps and thermal storage, data-centre-based flexibility schemes, utility-developer-operator partnerships, and service-based business models supported by third-party financing.

The models can be structured through mechanisms such as long-term PPAs, Heat as a Service, Energy as a Service, waste-heat offtake agreements, flexibility revenues and blended public-private financing.

According to the report, Power Couples bring together industrial players, energy providers, technology suppliers and capital partners in integrated partnerships that jointly optimise load, supply and infrastructure while reducing deployment risks.

Electricity costs, grid access and financing remain key barriers

The study finds that industrial electrification projects continue to face the same recurring obstacles across sectors, including electricity price volatility, delayed grid connections, financing challenges and the complexity of integrating new electric technologies into existing industrial operations.

Eurelectric argues that these barriers reinforce one another, creating a system-wide challenge that prevents many technically viable projects from reaching final investment decisions.

“Turning fragmented decisions into coordinated, system-level delivery is the key to solve the full electrification deployment challenge,” said Markus Rauramo, President of Eurelectric and CEO of Fortum.

Flexibility can more than double investment returns

As a practical example, the report examines a collaboration between a data centre and a dairy plant in Poland combining solar generation, battery storage and demand-side flexibility.

According to Eurelectric, the project’s return on investment rises from 5.9% under a standalone electrification scenario to 14.9% under a Power Couples model, with more than half of the improvement coming from shared flexibility and system services.

The report argues that coordinated flexibility creates additional value streams that improve project economics and accelerate deployment.

Source: Eurelectric

Beyond decarbonisation

For Eurelectric, electrification should be viewed not only as a decarbonisation strategy but also as a tool to strengthen industrial competitiveness, reduce exposure to imported fossil fuels and improve Europe’s energy resilience.

The association concludes that electrification will scale faster when market signals, grid expansion, investment frameworks and public policy are aligned, enabling industrial projects to move forward under more predictable and bankable conditions.