Cosmo Tech, a market leader in AI-Simulation software for enterprise decision-making, announces the deepening of its partnership with Groupe E, one of Switzerland’s largest grid operators. Groupe E has been using AI Simulation for five years to support strategic investment planning and is now extending its use for portfolio management, to strengthen investment prioritization and better align planning with both strategic goals and operational realities.
Simulating the future of the grid to navigate complex trade-offs
Active in electricity generation, distribution, and energy services, Groupe E serves businesses and more than 400,000 people across the cantons of Fribourg, Neuchâtel, and to a lesser extent, in Vaud. Like other utilities, Groupe E faces the challenge—impossible to tackle all at once—of renewing aging infrastructure while transforming its grid to meet the demands of the energy transition.
Using Cosmo Tech AI Simulation, Groupe E has a future view of its network performance and investment needs to support its choices and manage trade-offs. In 2022, the utility leveraged the solution to define an investment strategy that enabled the deferral of certain asset renewals beyond 2030, achieving 8% of savings. These savings have supported more financial resources to be allocated to the reinforcement and renewal of high-voltage grid.
Integrating smart grid flexibility: Assessing system-wide impact on investment and performance
Since 2024, Groupe E has been leveraging the Cosmo Tech solution to define its optimal broader renewal and reinforcement strategy enhanced by smart grid flexibility levers.
This system-wide simulation allows Groupe E to explore all possible combinations of renewal and reinforcement plans involving different assumptions about flexibility. It helps detect conflicts and synergies between projects, and assess their cumulative effects—year by year, over a 30-year horizon—on both grid stability (SAIDI) and energy transmission cost, according to various levels of financial and human investment (CAPEX, maintenance needs, and workforce capacity).
“Cosmo Tech gives us the confidence to rely on the projections and select the right strategy. It’s the only solution that allows us to simulate all scenarios in an integrated way and align technical performance, economic feasibility, and regulatory constraints, while making smart use of available flexibility mechanisms,” said Alain Ruffieux, Head of Grid Asset Management, Groupe E.
Scaling AI Simulation to enable portfolio-level planning and maximize value
Groupe E is now set to extend AI Simulation to portfolio-level investment planning. This phase will include a more detailed consideration of available workforce resources, and operational risk indicators with the visibility of project impact on overall performance.
By simulating at this more granular level, Groupe E aims to optimize the prioritization and allocation of its CAPEX budgets among each investment portfolio, strengthen its alignment with regulatory expectations, and ensure that investment plans remain feasible and executable at the enterprise level.
“This next stage represents a pivotal step in mastering the complexity of grid transformation. Groupe E will be able to optimize each investment in its portfolio while ensuring alignment with its overarching strategy—elevating asset investment planning to the enterprise level. We are proud to support their transformation,” said Hugues de Bantel, Co-founder and President EMEA of Cosmo Tech.
