Helena Gerard

Job Title: Senior Researcher
Company: VITO/EnergyVille
Country: Belgium

Helena Gerard (1984) received her Master's degree in Commercial Engineering, specializing in Finance, from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 2007. At the same university she obtained a Master-after-Master in Financial Economics in 2008. From 2008 to 2014, she worked for the energy company Engie (formerly GDF Suez). She held various positions in renewable energy, product design and portfolio management. In 2014, she joined VITO/EnergyVille as a senior researcher. She is responsible for the development of the VITO roadmap on energy market design. She is involved in (inter)national research projects on energy market design and system operation. She coordinates the Belgian-funded ETF project GALILEO (2024 - 2027) on industrial flexibility. She led the work on market design in the European project OneNet (2020 - 2024), coordinated the Belgian project ALEXANDER (2021 - 2025) on low voltage flexibility, and chaired the European BRIDGE working group on regulation for the past 7 years (2018 - 2025).

June 22, 2026Welcome and Introduction

Sessions

Session

Making Grid-Constrained Multi-Asset Sites Work

Monday, June 22, 2026, 03:45 pm - 04:45 pm

ICM München Room 4

Across Europe, there are ports, logistics hubs, industrial parks and campuses electrifying faster than grid capacity can be expanded. Shared connections, hybrid assets and active energy management are no longer optional -they are essential tools needed to stay connected, compliant and competitive. Well-designed industrial hubs and clusters can also strengthen Europe's resilience and competitiveness, but only if they are organized in a way that preserves a company's operational autonomy and avoids new system vulnerabilities or unnecessary complexity. This session explores how grid-constrained multi-asset sites are designed and operated in practice. Speakers will show how solar systems, battery storage systems, EV charging and flexible loads can be coordinated despite limited connections. They will also explain how DSOs interact with these sites and how energy hubs can deliver measurable grid relief while maintaining smooth operation.