The second Smart Energy Hubs Conference brought researchers, businesses, and municipalities together at the U-Park Hotel on the University of Twente campus in Enschede on 12 November 2025, under the theme “Unlocking robust, decarbonized energy systems,” a theme closely aligned with iDesignRES‘s own toolbox.

Henrik Lund delivered the keynote, “Planning and integration of Smart Energy Systems as steps towards full decarbonisation,” to roughly 200 people. The conference addresses a very practical premise: business parks and municipalities increasingly need frameworks to manage decentralized generation, storage, conversion, and flexible use, especially as grid congestion becomes a real bottleneck across the Netherlands, exactly the multi-carrier grid planning challenge iDesignRES’s open-source models are built to address.

Chaired by the University of Twente and Saxion in collaboration with the Dutch Topsector Energie programme, the conference gave researchers a route to peer-reviewed publication. Lund’s keynote translated the same national-level planning philosophy that iDesignRES applies to its industrial cluster cases in the Basque Country and Lombardy.