Energy Digital Magazine April 2026 | Page 27

THE ENERGY INTERVIEW

“ For me, sustainability has never been about tightening the belt. It’ s about freedom”

Mateusz Zając, Sustainability Leader, ABB Electrification Service
40 or 50 years ago, at a time when today’ s demand loads were unimaginable.
“ Think of the electrical grid as a threelane motorway,” Mateusz says.“ A lot of it was built decades ago, and it’ s aged well because it’ s been well maintained. But in many countries, demand has tripled since it was designed.
“ Imagine suddenly having three times as many cars on the motorway. And then imagine some of those cars starting to drive the wrong way – that’ s what distributed energy resources feeding back into the grid feels like.”
In a sense, ABB is now in the process of relaying the road ahead.
The retrofitting philosophy The question being asked of ABB by utilities, governments and industry alike is the same one being asked across the energy sector: how do you double capacity without tearing everything out and starting again? energydigital. com
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