LF Energy adds tech giants as board, membership grow

LF Energy has added new members, expanded its governing board with representatives from Apple, Microsoft and Shell, and reported record attendance across its events in Europe, North America and Asia during 2025.

The open source foundation said it welcomed new participants from research, academia and industry. New associate members include the Centre for Net Zero, the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems and Junia. It also named new governing board members Andy Chu of Apple, Laurent Boinot of Microsoft and Naresh Kumar Gajendran of Shell.

Alex Thornton, Executive Director of LF Energy, said the organisation saw stronger participation across projects and events. "With an influx of new members from the utility, vendor, research, and academic communities, impactful new technology and standards projects, and growing attendance at our summits, 2025 has been LF Energy's best year yet," said Alex Thornton, Executive Director, LF Energy.

Thornton set out priorities for the year ahead. "As we look forward to 2026, the staff and governing board are planning a series of new investments and strategies to significantly accelerate the innovation needed for the energy transition. I'm excited about our community's growth and prosperity in the year ahead," said Thornton.

Project milestones

LF Energy reported progress across several software and standards projects that relate to digital grid operations, forecasting, modelling and interoperability. The foundation positioned the work as part of a wider push for modernisation in power systems and the use of open source development models in utility technology.

One of the additions during the year was the LF Energy Semantic Energy Framework. LF Energy described it as a framework that addresses closed platforms, incompatible protocols and vendor lock-in. It said the approach uses an ontology-agnostic and domain-neutral design for semantic data representation, discovery and reasoning across different systems.

LF Energy also said it released RTC-Tools as a new project for optimisation of water and energy systems. It described RTC-Tools as a Python package that is already widely used. LF Energy said organisations use it to manage and optimise assets.

Another initiative, p-SWAMP, entered the portfolio as a research and development environment for Wide Area Monitoring, Protection and Control. LF Energy said p-SWAMP builds on the Nordic Early Warning Early Prevention System, known as NEWEPS. It described p-SWAMP as a way to develop new functionality in WAMPACS.

LF Energy also addressed governance and stewardship for a modelling project. It said PowSyBl, an open source library for power system modelling, visualisation and simulation, is transitioning to LF Europe while continuing its partnership with LF Energy. The foundation said the move reflected a new stage of growth for the project and linked it to Europe's digital sovereignty.

Software releases

Across its existing projects, LF Energy reported several version releases. It said SEAPATH version 1.2 offers easier installation, enhanced networking and storage and a redesigned wiki. SEAPATH focuses on virtualisation for digital substations.

LF Energy said FlexMeasures version 0.30 adds support for fixed-viewpoint forecasting. It said the change improves energy forecasting and allows multiple forecasts at the same time.

For OperatorFabric, LF Energy announced version 4.10.0. It described OperatorFabric as a platform focused on interoperability and situational awareness across energy systems. It said the release includes process monitoring improvements, custom screen enhancements and updated email management.

LF Energy also reported the release of CoMPAS 0.25.0, which it linked to substation configuration and interoperability. It said the release improves version consistency, container deployment stability and compatibility with the Open SCD toolchain.

Adoption examples

LF Energy highlighted several examples of organisations using its projects.

It said EcoPhi, a spinout from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, worked on more than 200 substation deployments worldwide. LF Energy said EcoPhi used SEAPATH for virtualised substation monitoring and analytics functions. It listed phasor measurement, power quality, disturbance recording and partial discharge within those functions.

LF Energy also cited the Nordic company Sigholm. It said Sigholm implemented OpenSTEF as the forecasting engine behind Aurora by Sigholm. LF Energy said OpenSTEF supports large scale forecasting for thermal energy production and improves operational decision making across the Nordic region.

Membership drivers

New members pointed to open collaboration as a reason for joining. LF Energy said Centre for Net Zero plans to work on OpenSynth, which it described as a community focused on AI-generated and AI-ready grid data.

"Formalising our relationship with LF Energy marks an exciting milestone for Centre for Net Zero as we build on the collaboration we began in 2024. Together, we look forward to advancing the OpenSynth community as the go-to place for AI-generated and AI-ready grid data, driving open, scalable innovation that helps push fossil fuels out of the energy system," said Gareth Jones, Chief Operating Officer, Centre for Net Zero.

"By joining LF Energy, Junia aims to bridge the gap between research and real-world applications, share our developments openly, and improve the quality of our contributions through community collaboration. This strategic step will make our innovations accessible, tested, and impactful for all stakeholders, accelerating the energy transition by transforming research into practical solutions," said Khaled Almaksour, Responsible for Electric Power Management Platform, Junia

Event growth

LF Energy said it saw higher attendance at its flagship gathering in Europe. It reported a full audience at LF Energy Summit Europe in Germany and said attendance rose by nearly 50% compared with 2024.

It also ran its inaugural LF Energy Summit North America in Varennes, Quebec. LF Energy described it as a one-day event with technical sessions, project deep-dives and community discussions aimed at utility professionals, researchers and technology developers.

In Europe, LF Energy also reported its first Enlit Europe event in Bilbao, Spain. It said the meeting brought together members, contributors and new participants focused on digital grid modernisation.

In Asia, LF Energy said it held its first seminar in Japan at the Lumada Innovation Hub Tokyo, with engineers, researchers and other energy sector professionals attending.

The foundation said it expects further changes to its programme in 2026 as its governing board and staff develop new investments and strategies.