The Control Room of the Future Implementation Council, led by 50Hertz (Germany) through the Global Power System Transformation Consortium (G-PST), is dedicated to improving control room operations and accelerating energy system transformation. By connecting system operators, researchers, and industry experts, the council ensures that new research is rapidly applied to real-world challenges in managing complex power systems.

Control rooms play a critical role in maintaining grid stability and integrating renewable energy sources, but traditional research methods often result in lengthy projects that do not keep pace with industry demands. The council aims to change this by fostering collaboration and streamlining research efforts to support low-cost and reliable power systems.

To accelerate this process, the council launched the Research Challenge for Innovation in Power Systems, an initiative that provides researchers with access to real-world projects and essential data to deliver results within a year. This challenge bridges the gap between academic research and industry needs by focusing on practical, scalable solutions that can be implemented quickly in control room operations.

To explore additional resources on control room design, visit the G-PST Resource Library.

The Control Room of the Future Implementation Council unites transmission system operators (TSOs), academic leaders, research institutions and software project developers from around the globe. Key participants include TSOs such as 50 Hertz and TransnetBW (Germany), academic institutions like Imperial College London and Johns Hopkins University, research institutions like the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), and software project developers like GE Vernova Digital and Collaborative Research for Energy System Modeling (CRESYM). They all contribute expertise and collaborate to explore and develop innovative solutions. The council is co-chaired by Mirko Pracht, product director at Elia Group/50Hertz.

The Control Room of the Future Implementation Council held its kickoff meeting in Copenhagen in June 2024. The meeting brought together transmission system operators, academic researchers, software developers, and industry leaders to discuss ways to accelerate research and innovation in control room operations. The goal is to move findings more quickly from research to real-world application, helping to advance the energy transition.

During the meeting, Mirko Pracht, product director at Elia Group/50Hertz, chaired discussions on industry challenges, while Adrian Kelly (EPRI) presented G-PST’s 17 key research questions on the future of control rooms. Participants agreed that while these challenges are well understood, traditional research processes do not align with the urgency of the energy transition. Research projects are often too large and complex, leading to multi-year timelines that slow implementation. Additionally, the industry does not always provide researchers with the necessary resources, such as data, real-world projects, and test environments, to develop and test solutions efficiently.

To address these barriers, 50Hertz launched the Research Challenge for Innovation in Power Systems. This initiative provides researchers with clearly defined tasks and direct access to industry resources, ensuring results that are both practical and applicable within control rooms in just one year. By streamlining collaboration between research and industry, the challenge aims to deliver faster, more effective solutions to support grid reliability and the integration of renewable energy.

The Control Room of the Future Implementation Council convened virtually on March 27, 2025. Building upon the momentum from the meeting in Copenhagen (June 2024), the council continues its mission to expedite the integration of innovative research into practical control room operations, fostering a collaborative environment among system operators, researchers, and industry experts.​

Participants discussed and presented on advancements in real-time grid operations, innovations in system monitoring and control, and strategic roadmapping and control room improvements. Participants also discussed the Research Challenge, an initiative of the G-PST, driven by the Elia Group and Energinet that was launched in 2024 with the aim of reducing the time from R&D to operational implementation. A total of eight research questions were posed, attracting applications from various research institutes, universities and companies. Four were selected for further development and work will continue over the next 12 months.

Explore presentations from the meeting.

The Control Room of the Future Implementation Council convened in person at the Global System Operations Summit in Berlin in September 2025 for discussions and presentations on advancing system strength assessment, operational stability, and human-centered control-room design.

In the portion centered on system strength in system operations, participants examined the limitations of traditional metrics as inverter-based resources continue to grow and reviewed emerging approaches for more accurate and scalable system-level insight. Presenters shared tools and analytical methods currently in development or active use.

The council also explored operational stability indices designed for real-time use and discussed how these indicators could support operators without relying on vendor-specific models. Human-factors considerations featured prominently, including situational awareness and decision-making in modern control rooms.

In parallel to the control room of the future sessions, 50Hertz and the other German system operators hosted a Topology Symposium highlighting continued collaboration among system operators research, and industry partners working to advance topology-based operational practices across global power systems. A poster fair accompanying this symposium provided all attendees the opportunity to dive deep on specific innovations with the researchers developing them.

Expert speakers from industry, system operators, and academia shared perspectives on control room operations and system strength analysis. Ben Kroposki, Jin Tan, Shahil Shah, and Seong Choi (NLR) presented on grid stability analysis tools and CROF applications. Deepak Ramasubramanian and Vikas Singhvi (EPRI) discussed the Grid Strength Assessment Tool. Gabriel Covarrubias Maureira (Imperial College London) examined gaps in current approaches to system strength evolution. Lina Ramirez (G-PST) presented on situational awareness and the CROF roadmap, highlighting the case of XM Colombia. Vikas Singhvi (EPRI) also discussed human factors and decision-making in modern control rooms.