With more than 200 participants, IENE’s milestone 30th “Energy & Development” conference took place in Athens on November 3 & 4 at the Eugenides Foundation. IENE’s flagship Conference attracted broad participation by delegates and speakers from Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, the UK and other countries, while leading energy, banking, and other major corporate groups in the country contributed as sponsors and supporters of this top annual national event.
Featuring 70 high-level speakers—including scientists and senior corporate executives from Greece and abroad—the conference covered the most pressing issues of our time, with an agenda focusing on both Greece and the broader region of SE Europe. Moreover, a senior executive from the International Energy Agency presented IEA’s Electrification Report.
Featuring a comprehensive agenda—ranging from energy transition and security of supply to investments, innovation, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)—IENE’s 30th "Energy & Development" served as a field of meaningful dialogue on the current state and future prospects of energy in Greece and the wider SE European region.
At the center of this year's Conference was the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, as well as the long-standing military conflict in Ukraine, and their overall impact on the energy sector, the economy, and particularly energy security.
The sessions of the “Energy & Development” Conference for 2026 covered the following subjects:
- The Day After the Middle East Crisis and the Impact on Energy
- Energy Security and Economy
- Electricity Grids & Interconnections
- Energy Efficiency at the Core of the Energy Transition
- Artificial Intelligence (AI), Digitalization & Data Centers
- The Competitive Disadvantage of Energy Costs in Europe and How It Can Be Addressed
- Electrifying the Future – Competitive Energy Prices
- Challenges and Opportunities in the Energy Market in Greece & SE Europe
- RES: Investments, Spatial Planning and the Risk of Market Saturation - The Curtailment Problem and the Storage Challenge
- The Promise of Nuclear Energy
- Greece as a Natural Gas Gateway to SE Europe: NG Transmission, Pipelines and LNG
- The European Natural Gas Market after the Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East
- What is the Future of Hydrocarbon Exploration in Greece?
- The Role of Critical Raw Materials
- Energy Challenges in SE Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean
As every year, the Conference took place under the auspices of the International Energy Agency (IEA), as well as Greece’s Ministry of Environment and Energy (YPEN) and Regulatory Authority for Waste, Energy and Water (RAAEY), while it was supported through sponsorship by major energy companies.
HELLENiQ ENERGY, Motor Oil, Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator S.A (IPTO - ADMIE), DEPA Commercial S.M.S.A., as well as KG Law Firm were the Sponsors of the event.
Conference’s Supporters included Piraeus Bank, EnSCo, Energean, the Hellenic Energy Exchange S.A. (HEnEx S.A.), and Gastrade.
Matlen and THERATRON – Electronic Marketing participated as Task Supporters.
Media sponsors for IENE’s 30th "Energy & Development" included the energy portal Energia.gr, NEGlobal.eu, the “Naftemporiki” newspaper, Liberal.gr, Euro2day.gr, SLpress.gr and Exportgreece.gr.
For more information regarding the agenda and the speakers of the Conference, you can visit the event's microsite: https://www.energy-development.eu/
