The future of reliable, flexible, and decarbonised power

In an exclusive interview with Energy Connects ahead of World Utilities Congress 2025, Fabrizio Fabbri, CEO of Ansaldo Energia, outlines the company’s role in the energy transition through high-efficiency gas turbines, digital optimisation, and hydrogen-ready solutions.

• How does Ansaldo Energia plan to contribute to the global transition towards renewable energy while ensuring reliability and efficiency in power generation?

We firmly believe that the energy transition must be sustainable in every aspect—economic, social, and environmental. That’s why our approach focuses on developing technologies and building machinery that enable reliable, cost-effective, and increasingly decarbonized power generation. At the heart of this effort are our gas turbines, our core business, which deliver a unique combination of efficiency, reliability, and flexibility. Complementing this, our Service business unit ensures the maintenance and optimization of the machines under its care, integrating hands-on expertise with advanced digital monitoring and predictive diagnostics. This approach allows for precise intervention planning, minimizing downtime and maximizing operational efficiency. A key pillar of these efforts is our Middle East Service Hub in Abu Dhabi, established 15 years ago and continuously improved, which plays a crucial role in supporting our operations. Additionally, our fleet monitoring and diagnostics centre, also located in Abu Dhabi, works in close coordination with its counterpart at our headquarters in Genoa, Italy, ensuring seamless global oversight and continuous performance improvement.

• What are some of the key challenges you see for the energy industry in the coming decade, and how is Ansaldo Energia positioning itself to tackle these challenges?

Flexibility is the key challenge in today’s energy landscape. Our machines are designed for exceptional operational flexibility, allowing them to respond in real time to grid demands as the share of intermittent renewable energy continues to grow. Leading the way is our flagship, the GT36—a gas turbine exceeding 560 MW in simple cycle. It boasts an impressive load ramp of 100 MW per minute and a Minimum Environmental Load of just 15%, meaning it can seamlessly adapt to grid fluctuations while maintaining emissions compliance and combustor stability. Our flexibility also extends to fuel. Today, our gas turbines can already operate with up to 70% hydrogen in blend with natural gas, with the goal of reaching 100% hydrogen capability by 2030. We are also at the forefront of advancing hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) combustion technologies. But flexibility isn’t just about operations—it’s also about industrial and commercial adaptability. We continuously evolve to meet our customers’ needs, delivering faster, more efficient, and more dynamic solutions in an ever-changing energy landscape.

• How does Ansaldo Energia integrate technological innovation into its projects, and what are some examples of recent advancements in your products and services?

Last year, we successfully tested the combustor of our flagship GT36 with 100% hydrogen, marking a major milestone in our decarbonization journey. Currently, we are also testing the AE94.3A combustor to validate its ability to burn hydrogen at higher percentages than the 40% threshold we already offer to the market. Recently, the Italian electricity grid operator commissioned five synchronous condensers, machines that provide essential grid services such as voltage regulation, reactive power support, short-circuit power, and inertia. As electricity grids face growing stability challenges and the physical limits of electrochemical storage become evident, this technology is gaining strong global interest. Additionally, our new AEM electrolyser, developed with proprietary technology, is proving to be highly operationally flexible, making it an ideal solution for integrating with renewable energy plants and storing excess energy as hydrogen. Finally, I would like to mention our nuclear capabilities, which spans from the supply of power island core components - such as steam turbines and generators - up to new build, service, plant life extension, waste management and decommissioning.

• What are you planning to showcase at World Utilities Congress 2025?

We are committed to contributing to the global conversation on the future of energy by sharing our expertise across multiple sectors—turbomachinery, electrolysers, decarbonized fuels, and nuclear. Through its history of industrial expertise and technological innovation, Ansaldo Energia provides essential solutions for decarbonization and energy security, contributing to the global energy transition challenge. We propose ourselves to the market as “Fit for transition”, convinced that only a pragmatic approach to the power generation scenario can secure a future of development and sustainability.