EDP Board Member Flags 'Greatest Transformation of All Time' at Web Summit

The energy transition is the greatest transformation of all time.

That’s what Vera Pinto Pereira, an executive board member at EDP and president of the EDP Foundation, said in a talk at the Web Summit event in Lisbon, Portugal, on Tuesday, which was attended by Rigzone.

“I actually like to call it a revolution and not a transition,” Pereira stated in the speech.

“It’s challenging, it’s difficult, it looks dystopian, but it is actually achievable, and it depends on all of us coming together,” Pereira added.

“It depends on governments, regulators, corporations, individuals, innovators - we all need to come together if we’re going to address this challenge of the energy transition. And this is a decisive decade … there’s no turning back,” Pereira went on to state.

Drawing parallels with her “favorite saga of all time” in the talk, Pereira said, “just like the Rebel Alliance, we’re facing our own death star”.

“Our own death star is actually called climate change. But also, just as the rebel alliance, I think we have hope because the force is with us. Now what is that force? It’s the energy transition,” Pereira added.

“And why is it such a powerful force? It’s a powerful force first because if we decarbonize energy, and then secondly if we electrify the economy, we have our solution for our death star,” Pereira continued in her talk.

“It will really make a massive change,” Pereira noted.

Not an Easy Task

In her speech, Pereira warned that “we have only 25 years to change an industry and electric system that took 200 years to actually build”.

“It’s not an easy task, it’s not a small one, and that’s why we need the force to be with us. That’s why we need to be Jedis. And there’s no going back, carbon neutrality must happen. By 2050 we must be carbon neutral,” Pereira said.

“Ninety percent of the energy we consume has to be green. And where is that today? It’s at 30 percent. This is a massive journey that still lies ahead, but it’s also the opportunity of a lifetime,” Pereira added.

“When we talk about the energy transition - and this is very important when we talk to all the communities that we engage with - it’s also an opportunity,” Pereira continued.

The EDP board member noted that it’s an opportunity for energy independence and said it’s important for job creation.

“There will be millions of new jobs created to address the energy transition,” Pereira stated.

“And it is valuable and a great opportunity to actually improve access to energy throughout the world … and how will we do it? … by harnessing the power of innovation,” Pereira added.

Continuing her Star Wars parallel, Pereira noted in her talk that innovation is just like Jedi training.

“It requires mind, creativity, focus, discipline, anticipation, foresight, and it requires body, it requires collective action, coordinated action,” Pereira added.

“At EDP … we have been harnessing this innovation and we have been delivering on our own ambition to actually lead this energy transition,” Pereira said.

A slide included in Pereira’s talk stated that EDP is a global player and worldwide leader in renewables. That slide highlighted that energy produced by renewable sources in 2024 stands at 97 percent for EDP. It also highlighted that the company’s goal is to go all green by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2040.

600% Growth in Global Electricity Demand

In her speech, Pereira warned that global electricity demand will grow by about 600 percent by 2030, “only with the electric vehicles coming onto the grid”.

“That’s going to be a huge strain on the grid, that’s going to ask for/require a lot of intelligent and smart grid management to able to address that exponential increase in demand,” Pereira warned.

“We also have heavy duty vehicles … those that account for the largest number of kilometers circulating on the roads, and they are having a hard time electrifying, so there’s plenty of space where we still need help from innovation and innovative minds,” Pereira added.

The EDP board member stated in her speech that 70 percent of all carbon emissions can already be addressed by about 15 technologies that already exist today. Pereira added, however, that “we’re not there, even with those 15 technologies”.

“They need to be scaled up and taken to a point where they’re actually at a commercial level … and then obviously another 30 percent … still need to be addressed if we are going to reach that target in regards to bringing down emissions,” Pereira added.

“And for all of this, we need all of our jedis on board … we need innovation jedis,” Pereira continued.

Greatest Impact on Reducing Carbon Footprint?

A large sticker board sponsored by EDP, which was placed at the entrance of the stage where Pereira held her talk, asked attendees what will have the greatest impact on reducing carbon footprint.

The question offered four response boxes – “renewable energy (solar, wind)”; “energy efficiency (smart grids, LED lighting, energy management)”; “sustainable mobility (electric vehicles and vvcve-mobility solutions)”; and “heating and cooling solutions (heat pumps)”. EDP’s board included a reel of small yellow stickers for attendees to place in the response box they deemed most suitable.

When Rigzone saw the board in the afternoon of November 12, renewable energy was the response box with the most stickers. Energy efficiency had the second most stickers, followed by sustainable mobility, and heating and cooling solutions.

In a release posted on its website on November 11, Web Summit announced that it had officially sold out “with more than 70,000 attendees, a record breaking 3,000 exhibiting companies, 1,000 investors and 2,000 global media”. The release highlighted that Web Summit is “the world’s largest tech conference, according to TIME”.

On its website, EDP states that it “started as a utility company in Portugal and grew to become a global energy major and a leader in the energy transition”.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com