Berlin – September 07, 2026 -- Europe's power grids are buckling under demand from AI data centers and electric vehicles, pushing energy resilience to the top of corporate agendas across the continent. Ahead of IFA Berlin 2026, running September 4-8, Economist Enterprise and EcoFlow announced a panel discussion titled "Flexibility by Design: Energy Resilience for Business."
Grid connection delays and volatile power prices threaten industrial growth across Europe
The panel brings together leaders from energy regulation, grid operations, digital infrastructure and manufacturing to address what organizers call Europe's most pressing commercial challenge: grid bottlenecks and unpredictable energy costs. Discussion topics include periods of negative wholesale electricity prices, capital-efficient resilience strategies for businesses, and flexible connection agreements as an alternative to lengthy grid-connection queues.
EcoFlow leverages 10 million deployed devices to expand from consumer to commercial energy markets
EcoFlow, which has built a global base of more than 10 million deployed devices and 5 million users, is applying its consumer hardware and software architecture to small businesses and large enterprises. The company's offering includes modular hardware, automated dynamic tariff optimization and AI-driven software aimed at giving commercial operators immediate, cost-effective energy independence.
Nick Chen, chief strategy officer at EcoFlow, said small and medium-sized businesses face the same energy price volatility and high costs as households. He said mass adoption of clean energy requires extreme simplicity, modular scalability and intelligent software automation, and that EcoFlow is bringing its proven consumer technology foundation to the commercial market to help firms manage complex energy needs, cut operating costs and secure energy resilience.
Panel includes senior officials from CEER, Elia Group and Equinix
Confirmed panelists include Bram Claeys, Secretary-General of the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER); James Matthys-Donnadieu, Chief Customer, Markets and Systems Officer at Elia Group; and Eulalia Flo, Vice President of Growth and Emerging Markets, Europe, at Equinix. Phillip Cornell, senior advisor for energy and sustainability at Economist Enterprise, will moderate. The session also examines distributed assets — small-scale storage, solar and energy management software — as infrastructure that coordinates with transmission systems to balance supply and demand, and how 2030 regulatory and technology trends will shape European electricity market competitiveness.
EcoFlow to showcase commercial energy systems at IFA Berlin 2026
EcoFlow will present its latest residential and commercial energy ecosystems at Messe Berlin, Hall 3.2, during IFA Berlin 2026 from September 4 to 8. The full panel discussion will be available on demand via The Economist Events Portal.