Investing in Europe’s Cross-Border Infrastructure

Enrico Maria Carlini graduated in Electrical and Energy Engineering with first class of honors from Sapienza University of Rome in 1991.

Enrico developed his career in Terna TSO, where he currently serves as Director of ‘Power System Planning and Permitting’. He is accountable for the EHV-HV Grid Development Plan, the Resilience Plan, the process of connections to the National Transmission Grid, the NTG interconnection through interconnectors and merchant lines, plus the authorization procedures of development infrastructures.

Over nearly three decades of experience spanning from power grid engineering and system development to system operation activities, he has been deeply involved in emerging technical concepts for the energy transition and digital transformation of electricity sector, incl.: RES integration, grid resilience, grid and defense system, power quality, resource adequacy, HVDC links, energy storage systems, ancillary services market and capacity remuneration mechanisms, market coupling for the Internal Electricity Market, regional cooperation of TSOs, Ten-Year Network Development Plan, etc.

Alongside with his position in Terna, he plays several leading positions in the key organizations of the energy community, among which: ENTSO-E, CIGRE-SEERC, IEC, CEI (Italian Electrotechnical Committee), AEIT (Italian Association of Electrical, Electronics, Automation, Information and Communication Technology), SEleNe (Southeast Electricity Network Coordination Center) and CORESO (COoRdination of Electricity System Operators).

Frequent invited speaker at conferences globally on secure energy transition in the power sector. Author of more than 200 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals and conferences.

In 2021 he has been awarded the qualification of Associate Professor in Electrical Power Engineering.

Maurice Dierick heads the European Affairs department at RTE, the French transmission system operator. took up the position of executive director for European Affairs at RTE in September 2024. After starting his career in industry, he has been working in the energy sector since 2001, mainly in asset management and system and market operations, but also in hydro power and grid-scale batteries. He is a past member of the Board of ENTSO-E, an engineer by training, and passionate about the future of the biggest interconnected grid in the world: Europe’s.

Gavin Knott is the Chief Economic Adviser at Ofgem, and works on both price control regulation and on using economic analysis to understand how the competitive energy markets act in the consumer interest. Gavin has over 15 years experience working in competition and regulation across the UK’s infrastructure sectors, working as a regulator and in the private sector. Gavin also has a PhD in real option theory.

Professor Bert Willems, is a CERRE Research Fellow and a Professor of Economics at the Université catholique de Louvain where he studies and teaches energy management and environmental economics. He is affiliated with the Law and Economic Center at Tilburg University (TILEC), the Toulouse School of Economics and a board member of the Benelux Association for Energy Economics (BAEE).