Powering the Utility Future: Insights from Cuculus Friends 2025
When you gather visionaries, engineers, investors, and innovators under the roof of Allianz Arena, you expect a powerful conversation. But at this year’s Cuculus Friends Event, it went even further—what emerged was a clear, urgent narrative about where the utility sector is headed, and what it will take to lead the transformation.
We’re no longer talking about the energy transition in vague terms. This was about execution—across software, infrastructure, regulation, and emerging markets.
“It’s not just about installing more renewables—it’s about orchestrating an entirely new system of supply and demand.”
The day opened with a compelling keynote from Gerard Reid, co-founder of Alexa Capital. Known for his sharp takes on energy finance and host of the Redefining Energy podcast, Gerard didn’t hold back: the energy industry is on the cusp of a revolution, and the drivers are clear—AI, electrification, and exponential innovation.
From batteries turning homes into micro power plants, to solar scaling faster than anyone predicted, the industry is changing at an astonishing pace. But none of it, Gerard argued, works without intelligent systems capable of balancing, forecasting, and adapting in real time. That’s where smart platforms—and bold decisions—come in.
Following the keynote, Gerard Reid returned to moderate a dynamic global panel featuring:
Each speaker brought an on-the-ground perspective of what energy transition means in their region—and what’s standing in the way.
In Senegal, Faye emphasized that affordability alone won’t drive adoption. Flexibility is key—particularly when rolling out solar and smart metering in rural contexts. His view: “We must learn quickly and adapt faster—because things never go exactly to plan.”
Bander Allaf offered the Middle East experience, where smart integration across electricity, gas, water, and cooling is already proving its value. He highlighted the role of government investment and unified planning in building robust digital infrastructures: “When data flows across sectors, so does efficiency.”
Representing Europe, Kjartan Skaugvoll discussed the essential role of AI and data orchestration in enabling real-time flexibility. He pointed to the legacy infrastructure challenges many European utilities face and called for systems that are “not just digitized—but adaptive by design.”
The panel closed with a quickfire reflection on the biggest blockers in the energy transition: regulatory capacity and access to financing, organizational resistance and outdated systems, and the need to move the conversation beyond meters to orchestration and intelligence.
From the macro view, the event shifted into the architecture that makes digital transformation actionable. Lars Molske introduced ZONOS, Cuculus’ core IoT platform for utilities—a modular, interoperable foundation built to manage today’s complexity while preparing for tomorrow’s demands.
What stood out wasn’t just the feature list—it was the strategic posture. ZONOS is designed to break away from fragmented legacy systems and enable what Lars called “plug-and-play digital ecosystems.”
Whether it’s managing outages with zero downtime, updating device firmware through cloud campaigns, or automating billing across water and electricity—ZONOS is more than a head-end system. It’s the base layer for a smarter utility business model.
“No energy without AI, no AI without energy”
That bold line came from Sam Mathew of Microsoft, who delivered an eye-opening session on what artificial intelligence is already doing behind the scenes of the world’s grids.
But this wasn’t a theoretical talk. Sam mapped out use cases that are already live:
What became clear was this: AI isn’t a luxury anymore—it’s a foundational layer for every utility that wants to stay operational, resilient, and competitive in a future of explosive data growth and accelerating electrification.
If Sam Mathew’s session made the case for AI’s power behind the scenes, the next moment made it personal.
DARINA, Cuculus’ new AI assistant, was unveiled to the audience—not with a product pitch, but with a vision: a future where utility operators can interact with their systems as naturally as they would with a colleague.
Imagine a control room where instead of clicking through dashboards, operators can simply ask about a device’s status, trigger updates, or analyze consumption patterns—with secure, contextual voice commands. That’s the future DARINA introduces: hands-free, real-time, intelligent operations.
It marked a shift—not just in how utilities function, but in how human the interface to these complex systems can become.
Djigbenou Antoine, Deputy Director at GS2E, took the stage alongside Cuculus COO Sagar Chandaria. Together, they unpacked a story from Côte d’Ivoire, where Cuculus supported a national transformation across water and electricity utilities.
This wasn’t an easy market. Two sectors, two legacy systems, and thousands of daily prepaid transactions—all running in a rapidly growing environment.
Their success boiled down to three things:
A partner mindset—“Cuculus wasn’t just selling tech; they were building trust.”
To close out the day, Rene Böringer, CEO of Cuculus, led a cross-sector panel titled “Metering the Future: Innovation and Integration in Water, Gas, and Electricity.” Panelists included:
Each represented a different utility vertical—but their challenges were strikingly aligned.
Bosbach pointed to water’s slow digital adoption curve, explaining how leakage detection, sustainability pressures, and cost recovery are finally pushing the sector toward innovation. His message: “We’ve seen what’s possible in electric—now water must catch up.”
Gazulha Jr. emphasized the growing need for modular, edge-ready systems in electricity, especially as Europe faces aging infrastructure, climate volatility, and cybersecurity threats. He underscored the role of digital twins and cloud-native platforms in enabling grid modernization at scale.
Vergani brought the gas perspective—highlighting not only the technical challenges around real-time pressure, safety, and compliance, but also the emerging push for hydrogen-compatible metering. Pietro Fiorentini, he noted, is already delivering meters tested with 20% hydrogen blends and preparing for full hydrogen use.
The panel agreed that while sector-specific innovation remains essential, the future lies in cross-utility systems that are interoperable, secure, and able to evolve with regulation and demand.
As Rene concluded: “Integration isn’t a luxury—it’s a requirement if we want to build resilient, efficient, and future-ready utility networks.”
As the conversations wound down, participants were invited on an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of Allianz Arena—a fitting setting for an event about smart infrastructure and innovation. From its cutting-edge energy systems to its role as a symbol of world-class engineering, the stadium embodied many of the themes explored throughout the day. It wasn’t just a tour—it was a reminder that vision, when executed well, becomes part of the landscape.
Watch the recap video for some highlights of the day.
