Energy in Transition: The Culture, The Challenges and The Opportunities

To build the energy system of the future, innovation must go hand in hand with flexibility and efficiency. New technologies like battery storage, flexible contracts, and hydrogen infrastructure are essential, but innovation is not just technical—it is systemic.

For the first time, the balance between supply and demand has fundamentally changed. Grid operators face long waiting lists for connections. This has direct societal and economic consequences: solar panels that cannot be connected, electric fleets that cannot be charged, and industrial sites that remain idle.

Grid operators must increase their execution power while becoming more selective and data driven. Digital capacity planning, asset optimization, and demand-side flexibility are no longer optional—they are essential.

Energy planology is also critical: infrastructure planning must be embedded early in spatial and economic development. This adds complexity, requiring alignment between grid operators, local governments, developers, and broader coalitions of stakeholders.

Efficiency in core processes, i.e. design, procurement and execution, must also improve. Time, materials, and skilled labor are structurally scarce. Waste is unaffordable. The scale of this task is staggering. Grid operators are rolling out more than 1,300 kilometers of cable and hundreds of substations in a single year. The energy transition is not only a matter of planning and innovation; it is a logistical mega-effort.

Internal improvements alone are not enough. The energy transition can only succeed through cooperation across organizational boundaries. This includes working with energy producers, governments, developers, regulators, and civil society.

Aligning diverse stakeholders, each with their own interests and timelines, requires more than coordination; it demands coalition-building based on shared outcomes.

Traditional governance models are no longer sufficient. Decision-making must be based on mutual ambition, shared values, and strong business cases. Not authority alone. Problems can no longer be escalated up the chain. They must be solved collectively.

This transformation is not just about hardware, it’s about people. As grid operators accelerate digitalization, innovation, and collaboration, new competencies are critical. Real-time planning systems, AI-driven asset monitoring, and customer data platforms are now central to operations. This shift demands capabilities in data analytics, cybersecurity, and digital engineering, along with the ability to translate insights into operational impact.

Equally important is the human side of this change. New organizational roles are emerging in stakeholder engagement, congestion mitigation, and flexibility of services roles that require strong communication, systems thinking, and cross-functional collaboration.

Yet technical capabilities alone are not enough. Organizations must execute strategy moving from Plan to Planning to Execution with discipline and clarity. Many have bold transition roadmaps, but struggle with follow-through. That’s why performance management matters: setting clear goals, enabling regular feedback, driving shared accountability, and embedding continuous learning.

A major hurdle is the need to make hard, and sometimes unpopular, decisions through effective portfolio management. Prioritization for the greater good, not just for short-term wins or departmental preferences, is where many organizations falter and without this, momentum stalls.

Finally, real impact comes from building value delivery chains with meaningful internal and external stakeholders—partners who are aligned on shared purpose and delivery outcomes. When everyone rows in the same direction, transformation becomes not just possible, but sustainable.

Our solution to the challenge is to help organizations build iterative strategy-planning processes that enable timely adjustments. We work together to define objectives, set performance indicators, and align execution with agile delivery. This applies not just to annual plans, but especially to the transition milestones in the next three, five, and ten years. Only with the right people in empowered roles can the energy transition gain lasting momentum.

Underneath every structure lies a culture, and that culture shapes what is possible. Historically, energy organizations have prioritized technical consistency and regulatory compliance. Today’s reality demands something more: a performance-driven mindset.

Organizations must be adaptive, transparent, and accountable. This requires clear roles, embedded feedback loops, and performance dialogues that surface barriers and align actions.

Culture change is difficult, especially when informal behaviors contradict formal agreements. Realignment often requires courageous conversations. Ownership is key: people must feel and be responsible for outcomes.

Cultural change also depends on strong leadership, skilled professionals, and secure digital infrastructure. These are not soft factors; they are the foundation for successful execution.

It also includes a shift toward customer orientation. Grid operators are moving from a connection-driven model to a customer-driven model. That means managing expectations, communicating clearly, and offering predictability in a constrained system. To support this, organizations are investing in tools like capacity maps, customer journey design, and proactive communication. These help customers and developers make better, faster decisions, and reduce friction.

In summary, at Highberg, we believe the energy transition is the defining execution challenge of our time. It demands systemic change, but it succeeds—or fails—on the ground: in teams, in conversations, in daily decisions. That’s where we work, side by side with our clients. Helping them turn ambition into action, complexity into clarity, and pressure into progress.

If you want to learn how we help organizations take the next step—let’s talk. Contact Sjoerd Hogenbirk and Ralph den Bosch.