What CIGRE Paris 2026 Revealed About the Future of Energy

Some conferences are attended. Others are absorbed. CIGRE Paris 2026 was very much the latter, and Pedro Cordeiro, Principal Pre-Sales Engineer at Critical Software, was there to experience it firsthand.

For three days, Pedro walked the halls of one of the largest gatherings in the power industry, and by the end of it, his business card stack had tripled, and his notebook was a mess of arrows, acronyms, and half-finished thoughts still being untangled in the best possible way.

What struck Pedro first wasn't any single conversation, but the sheer breadth of who was in the room. TSOs and DSOs (Transmission and Distribution System Operators) stood a few booths down from utilities. Power generation companies sat next to battery storage specialists. Equipment vendors, software providers, and system integrators, all circling the same fundamental question from wildly different angles: how do we make the grid of tomorrow work?

It's rare to see an entire value chain condensed into one exhibition floor. Usually you get slices of it. Here, the whole electric grid ecosystem stood shoulder to shoulder, comparing notes.

Most exhibitors were there to showcase, glossy product demos, live dashboards, hardware on display — the usual conference choreography. But underneath the polish, the real story was in the sidebar conversations. The ones that happen when someone leans in and says, "off the record, here's what we're actually struggling with."

1. Digitalization stopped being a buzzword. A few years ago, "digital transformation" in energy still felt aspirational, a slide in someone's strategy deck. This year, it felt operational. Companies weren't asking whether to digitalize, they were comparing notes on how fast and how securely.

2. Cybersecurity has moved from the back office to the boardroom. Nearly every serious conversation, regardless of which part of the grid the company sat in, eventually touched cybersecurity. Not as compliance box-ticking, but as a genuine strategic concern. NIS2, CRA, IEC 62443, these aren't abstract acronyms anymore, they're shaping procurement decisions in real time.

3. The best insights rarely came from the scheduled sessions. Some of the most useful conversations happened waiting in line for coffee, or catching someone between meetings. There's something about the informality of those moments that gets past the pitch and into the real problem.

Coming out of CIGRE, Pedro has a much sharper picture of where Critical Software fits into this puzzle, not simply as a vendor delivering a service, but as a genuine partner to organizations navigating a grid that's becoming more digital, more distributed, and more exposed, all at once. Software quality, testing rigor, and OT/ICS security aren't nice-to-haves in this world: they're the foundation everything else gets built on.

Three days weren't nearly enough for every conversation Pedro wanted to have. But they were enough to leave with a clearer sense of direction, a fuller contacts list, and genuine excitement about where this industry is headed.

Here's to a smarter, safer, more connected grid. See you at the next one.

Curious how Critical Software helps utilities, TSOs, and DSOs power what's next? Explore our energy industry expertise, resources, and success stories — and see what we mean by software you can trust with the grid.