Keynote Speakers

Brit Ross Winthereik

Professor and Head of Division, Department of Technology, Management and Economics, Technical University of Denmark

Brit Ross Winthereik’s research focuses on digitalization processes, the use of data and automation in the public sector. Her ethnographic approach to contemporary welfare societies with a particular focus on information infrastructures and human life within has resulted in articles in Science and Technology Studies, anthropology and information studies journals and is presented through collaborative book projects including 'Monitoring Movements in Development Aid: Recursive Infrastructures and Partnerships' (MIT Press, 2013), ‘Electrifying Anthropology’ (Bloomsbury, 2019), 'Experimenting with Ethnography' (Duke University Press, 2021), 'Handbook for the Anthropology of Technology' (Palgrave Handbook Series, 2021), and ‘Energy Worlds in Experiment’ (Mattering Press, 2021).

Brit Ross Winthereik will deliver the Social Science Keynote on Day 2 of the conference.

Social Science Panel

Doctor Karen Waltorp

Title: South Africa’s Silicon Cape: Powering technological imaginaries?

Abstract: Digital technologies use a lot of energy. Cape Town is home to the most data centers of all cities on the African continent. It is regarded as one of the technological hubs along with the ‘Silicon Savannah’ in Kenya and the ‘Silicon Lagoon’ of Lagos, earning it the name of the ‘Silicon Cape’. Cape Town, along with the rest of South Africa, experiences rolling blackouts while being seen as a center of technology development. With a grounding in longitudinal fieldwork over 20 years in the area, I query in this paper what the so-called Silicon Cape moment afford for better and worse, and for whom? I propose the concept of the digital-energy nexus and substantiate it empirically combining two ongoing research projects: the IRDF -funded DigiSAt on digital everyday lives and energy futures, and the DFC-funded CLAIMS to Energy Citizenship. What is ‘powering’ tech entrepreneurs locally in the Cape Flats area of 3 million people on the periphery of Cape Town, formerly designated and differentiated into ‘Black’ and ‘Coloured’ townships under the Group Areas Act of 1952? What power does the so-called eco-system of the Silicon Cape represent to people here? What would it take to re-route Apartheid’s legacy away from path dependency in a techno-capitalist market? What alternative versions of tech development emerge from Cape Town? And as the digital-energy nexus concept foreground, how does the digital intersect with questions of energy? Peripheral views and possible answers collapse questions around economy, equity, colonial legacies and the global energy politics of the national Just Energy Transition (JET).

Bio: Karen Waltorp is associate professor and filmmaker, head of the Ethnographic Exploratory and Multimodal Lab at University of Copenhagen. Her expertise sits at the intersection of digital media and emerging technologies, energy and infrastructure, migration/minority studies, gender, and visual and multimodal approaches. From theorising the smartphone as relational device and real virtuality, to its backend, undergirding infrastructure and related energy/environment implications - and the various effects of this new digital (algorithmic) ecology for differently situated groups of people. She has published widely on these topis, including the monograph Why Muslim Women and Smartphones (2020), edited volumes Energy Futures(2022), An Anthropology of Futures and Technologies (2023) and the Special Issue Digital Sociality (2024). Waltorp has two decades of research experience and ethnographic fieldwork in South Africa, and Denmark, with shorter fieldtrips to West Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East.

Doctor J?rg Radtke

Title: Smart is Beautiful? Smart Meters, Smart Grids, and the Future of Participatory Energy Infrastructures

Abstract: As energy systems transition toward decarbonization, digitalization, and decentralization, the deployment of smart meters and smart grids has become a cornerstone of contemporary energy policy. However, these technologies not only reconfigure technical infrastructures but also transform governance regimes, everyday practices, and the very understanding of citizenship in energy transitions. This contribution critically explores the socio-technical and political dimensions of smart energy systems, drawing on recent empirical and theoretical research in energy sociology, science and technology studies (STS), and participation studies.

The integration of smart meters into households enables real-time monitoring, consumption feedback, and automated energy management. Yet these devices also embody new forms of surveillance, norm-setting, and behavioral nudging. Building on Foucault's concept of governmentality and recent work on energy democracy, it is analyzed how smart technologies shift responsibility from state institutions to individual prosumers while creating new regimes of visibility, discipline, and datafication. Smart grids link distributed renewable energy sources, storage systems, and user behavior into complex cyber-physical networks. Their operation relies not only on algorithmic optimization and demand-side flexibility, but also on citizen cooperation, acceptance, and trust.

These transformations are examined through empirical case studies in Germany. Insights demonstrate how e-participation tools and digital platforms can either empower or marginalize citizens, depending on design, access, and transparency. It is argued that the digitization of energy infrastructures creates both new democratic potentials and new inequalities, particularly regarding data sovereignty, digital literacy, and infrastructural exclusion.

To navigate this ambivalence, the contribution calls for a participatory design approach to smart energy systems that foregrounds procedural justice, democratic legitimacy, and social inclusion. Opportunities for blended participation (online/offline), the use of augmented and virtual reality in planning visualization, and deliberative feedback tools that promote shared decision-making are discussed. By conceptualizing smart energy infrastructures as socio-technical institutions rather than neutral tools, a deeper understanding of the political ecology of digital energy transitions can be achieved.

Bio: Jo?rg Radtke currently leads two research projects on community energy and digital public participation in energy transitions at the Research Institute for Sustainability in Potsdam.

After completing his studies in Social Science, Geography and German philology, he obtained his PhD with a thesis on community energy in Germany. In addition to studying Germany's Energiewende, his research focuses on the governance, politics and policies of sustainability transitions as well as modes and pitfalls of public participation and democracy, with a special focus on online collaboration, coordination and participation.

Doctor Friederike Rodhe

Title: Institutionalization of Intelligent Grids: The performative power of imagined futures.

Abstract: Visions of intelligent grids and digital energy technologies not only represent descriptions of possible futures, but also shape, stabilise and change social realities through their performative power. Through the rise of machine learning technologies those visions gain even more traction, while these advances also bring with them considerable challenges and risks. The contestations that occur related to intelligent grid developments are associated with multiple conflicting aims, interests and interpretations. The performative power of visions lies in their capability to actively shape social realities, provide stability and guide future developments through their dissemination and anchoring in existing rules, norms and belief systems. The actor constellations and dynamics that occur in the dissemination and development of these visions of the future show which actors influence the emergence and consolidation of intelligent grids. This input provides an analysis of these processes, which enables a deeper understanding of how socio-technical innovations are embedded in social structures and which actors and strategies drive its stabilisation.

Bio: Friederike Rohde is a sociologist of technology and studies the interplay between technological and social change dynamics. She is particularly interested in social discourses and narratives surrounding the use of digital technologies. Her research interests lie in the sustainability impacts of new technologies and the critical analysis of different expectations and visions. She earned her doctorate on the ecological and social consequences of digital change as part of the S?F junior research group "Digitalization and Socio-Ecological Transformation." In her dissertation, she examined technological futures for digitalization in the energy system and conducted a discourse network analysis of the smart home discourse in social media. One of the focuses of her research is artificial intelligence and sustainability.

Doctor Marika Rupeka & Professor Margot Pellegrino 

Title: Energy and digital transition: how virtual power plants and other digital energy management systems are transforming existing electricity regimes 

Abstract: Our presentation builds on an ongoing research into parallel trends of electricity digitalization and decarbonization.  We have recently published a research paper with the first results of our study^[1], where we examine the case of Virtual power plants (VPPs). VPPs can be described as networked socio-technical systems for the aggregation of multiple energy generation, storage, and/or consumption devices, using a centralized digital control interface to participate in the wholesale electricity market and to contribute to grid balancing. 

Distributed energy resource coordination and orchestration tools (such as VPPs) transform the role of well-established players in the energy landscape and allow for new market players to emerge. From a network perspective, VPPs contribute to the management of electricity grid resilience in the form of outsourced tools for demand-supply balancing. What will be the consequences of VPP growth for electricity systems if these digitally-enabled tools become a central contributor to grid stability?

To answer these questions, we will analyse the financial, socio-spatial, metabolic, network-related and political-institutional contexts of VPP involvement in energy markets, with a specific focus on France, California and South Australia. We will conclude by shedding light on the vulnerabilities inherent to this new energy system configuration, which relies heavily on the effectiveness of price signals, the economic rationality of operators, the performance of digital tools, and the vigilance of energy regulation authorities.

Doctor Marika Rupekas Bio: Marika Rupeka holds a degree in architecture from ENSA Paris-Malaquais and a PhD in architecture and urban planning from the University Paris-Est Sup (2021). She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, where she teaches at ESIREIMS Engineering School and heads the Master's program in Urban Planning. Additionally, she is a researcher with the Habiter research unit and an associate researcher at LIAT (ENSAPM). Her work examines the spatial and organizational dynamics of contemporary energy systems — particularly electricity and heat — alongside the historical development of networked urban services.

^[1] Pellegrino M., Rupeka M. (2023). Contribution of virtual power plants to the resilience of the electrical grid. FLUX. https://shs.cairn.info/journal-flux-2023-2-page-22?lang=en

Engineering and Informatics Panel

Doctor Juan E. Machado

Title: Energy-based modeling and control of converter-dominated power systems.

Abstract: In modern power systems, the increasing use of power electronics converters necessitates advanced modeling and control strategies to ensure stability and efficiency. Port-Hamiltonian approaches provide a structured framework for capturing the energy flow and interconnection of converter-dominated systems, enabling systematic integration while preserving key properties for stability analysis. By leveraging this energy-based perspective, control design can be rooted in interconnection and energy-shaping principles. In many instances, this facilitates a decentralized and/or distributed control implementation, as well as the provision of stability conditions directly based on the subsystem’s energetic and interconnection properties, which enhances scalability and robustness.

In this talk, we will discuss recent contributions and open challenges on the energy-based modeling and control of converter-dominated power systems, with particular emphasis on DC and AC microgrids. 

Bio: Juan E. Machado is Group Leader of the Young Investigation Group ‘Distributed Control and Operation of Integrated Energy Systems’, which is part of the Control Systems and Cyber-Security Lab of the Energy Innovation Center (EIZ), and which is hosted by the Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU) Cottbus-Senftenberg, in Cottbus, Germany. His research interests are within the analysis and control of nonlinear and networked dynamical systems, with a strong emphasis on electric and heat grids. Before joining BTU, Dr. Machado was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, where he worked on modeling, analysis and control of multi-source district heating systems, with the support from the EU projects TOP-UP and TESOPS. He is coauthor of various scientific publications in venues such as IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Letters, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, Automatica, and Asian Journal of Control. Dr. Machado was awarded a PhD degree in control systems by Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.

Mister ?mer Sen

Title: Building a Foundation for Detecting and Defending Against Multi-Stage Cyberattacks on Smart Grids

Abstract: Sophisticated cyberattacks on smart grids often follow a sequential, multi-stage structure and penetrate deeply into monitoring and control systems relevant to grid operations, aiming to disrupt the stability of energy supervision within the target area. To defend against such attacks, a holistic security concept is required, one that is built upon the full lifecycle of prevention, detection, and response. Especially when preventive measures fail, a robust foundation for detecting coordinated attacks and supporting effective incident response is essential to mitigate, contain, and recover from such incidents.

Bio: Since 2019, ?mer Sen has been working at the IAEW of RWTH Aachen University in the research group Resilient Grid Operation and Digitalization, under the Chair of Active Energy Distribution Grids. He completed his studies in Electrical Engineering, Technical Computer Science, and Information Technology, with a specialization in Power Engineering, at RWTH Aachen in September 2019. Through his work on various projects, academic assignments, and other service activities, Mr. Sen has gained extensive experience—both in leading and supporting roles—on topics such as cybersecure enhancement of intelligent energy information systems, the impact of multi-stage cyberattacks, and the development of corresponding countermeasures through detection mechanisms.

As part of his doctoral research, he focused on cross-domain detection of complex and coordinated cyberattacks on power grids as a foundation for developing reactive countermeasures. He thus possesses in-depth scientific expertise regarding current and future information and operational technologies in energy networks, particularly in electrical distribution grids.