LF Energy adds members & projects to boost grid tools
Tue, 16th Jun 2026 (Today)
LF Energy has added three members, accepted three new projects, and advanced Power Grid Model to its Early Adoption stage. It also highlighted a case study in which TenneT used PowSyBl to improve grid security analysis.
AZX and EcoPhi joined as General Members, while Empa joined as an Associate Member. The additions broaden participation from companies and research bodies working on energy technology, artificial intelligence, and applied science.
LF Energy also added three projects focused on different parts of the energy software stack: AINETUS, aimed at AI decision support for grid operations; URPX, a standard for utility rate plan data exchange; and CUPID, a toolkit intended to improve interoperability for distributed energy resources.
AINETUS comes from the European AI4REALNET research effort and is designed for power grid control rooms. It combines reinforcement learning, explainability tools, and operator interfaces, and works with Grid2Op, OperatorFabric, and grid management platforms.
URPX has been accepted under LF Energy Standards and Specifications. It defines a machine-readable format for utility rate plans, covering billing logic, eligibility rules, versioning, and data exchange. It is intended to address the lack of a common way to represent how customers are charged for utility services.
CUPID focuses on communications between distributed energy resource management systems, devices, and older hardware using the IEEE 2030.5 standard. The project includes a client and server library, as well as a legacy protocol converter. Contributors include CyberGrid, Forschungszentrum Jülich, INESC TEC, RWTH Aachen, and Sunesis.
Project milestone
Power Grid Model moved to Early Adoption after passing 10 million downloads and gaining production use at the Netherlands' three main distribution system operators: Alliander, Enexis, and Stedin. The software is used for steady-state distribution power system analysis, including power flow, state estimation, and short-circuit calculations.
According to LF Energy, this status is reserved for projects that show community growth, production deployment by at least two independent users, formal technical oversight, and an approved plan for further development. Alliander contributed the software.
"Alongside three new members, three new projects joining in a single announcement, and Power Grid Model advancing to Early Adoption, it reflects real momentum across the community. The shared foundation we are building is one that the energy industry can depend on," said Alex Thornton, Executive Director, LF Energy.
Thornton also pointed to a separate example from TenneT, the transmission system operator for the Netherlands and part of Germany. The case study centers on ReFlow, an orchestration platform built on the open source PowSyBl project for grid security analysis.
TenneT reached its first production deployment within five months of the project starting. The system delivered at least a tenfold performance improvement across standard grid security processes and removed the need for proprietary licensing.
ReFlow uses standardized CIM/CGMES 3.0 inputs and runs PowSyBl security analyses in parallel. Its architecture allows computing resources to scale up when needed and shut down when processing is complete.
The platform was designed to remain modular, allowing different calculation engines to be used for different types of analysis. TenneT joins RTE, BalticRCC, and Coreso as a production user of PowSyBl.
"TenneT's case study shows what open source can deliver for utilities. They went from project start to production in five months, less time than a typical RFP process, and achieved a tenfold performance improvement over their previous tooling," said Thornton.
TenneT also gave its own assessment of the software behind the project. "We consider PowSyBl the most advanced open source power-system analysis engine available. We benefit directly from years of investment by RTE and the broader LF Energy community," said Hugo Pfister, Manager, Grid Security Applications, TenneT Netherlands.
Recent releases
LF Energy also outlined a series of software releases across its portfolio, including EVerest 2026.02.0, described as the first stable release under that project's long-term support approach; OperatorFabric 4.12.0; Power Grid Model v1.13.x; FlexMeasures v0.31; and PowSyBl Dependencies 2026.0.0.
The update shows LF Energy seeking to deepen its role in software and standards used in energy networks, from control room tools and rate plan data to substation monitoring and distributed resource communications. It now hosts more than three dozen projects used across power system planning, operations, and electrification.
Empa's arrival also underlines the involvement of research institutions in that effort. The Swiss institute has already worked with LF Energy's Battery Data Alliance on a large open source dataset formatted in Battery Data Format.