written by Mileta Žarković
When you say “EU HORIZON project meeting”, most people imagine long PowerPoint sessions in a dark room. The SUNRISE final meeting in Sevilla was all that — but also smart grids, cyber-attacks, football, and one very emotional moment in front of a Five Guys we didn’t have time to enter.
The meeting took place at the Higher Technical School of Engineering in Sevilla, on 26–27 November 2025. Our University of Belgrade – School of Electrical Engineering (ETF) team arrived ready with slides, graphs and too little sleep.
The programme was serious WP1–WP7 presentations. we have discussions about smart AC/DC grids, cyber-physical testbeds, monitoring, diagnostics and state estimation We have a long session about deliverables, reporting, finances. The second day started much more “hands-on”. We visited the laboratory and played with a cyber-physical CIGRE benchmark smart grid.
In Sevilla everybody talk about AC/ DC grids
- Seeing the VCS (Voltage Control System) in real operation
- Watching smart AC/DC grid monitoring and state estimation in real time
- A live demonstration of a cyber-attack on the system and how it is detected in the lab
Nothing wakes you up like seeing your grid under attack — even better than Spanish coffee.
We also saw a Typhoon HIL classroom setup, which is basically a playground for power engineers. It’s perfect for future summer schools, where students can safely “break” the grid in simulations instead of in real life. The Sevilla team presented their work on on-load tap changers (OLTC) and overhead lines (OHL), and we had a good discussion about future cooperation and new project proposals.
Talking about the future – and millions of euros
Of course, an EU project never ends with just a “Goodbye, it was nice”. We talked about new HORIZON calls we could apply to together, including topics on:
- Next-generation distribution substations for resilience
- Generative AI for the digital backbone of the EU energy system
- Smarter buildings as active parts of the energy system
- Wind energy reliability and predictive maintenance
Sevilla after work – Plaza de España, Giralda and green–white night
SUNRISE was not only about kilovolts and algorithms. Sevilla is too beautiful to ignore.
We walked through Plaza de España, which looks like someone mixed a palace, a square and a movie set. We visited the Giralda and the cathedral area, trying to decide what was higher: the tower or the number of SUNRISE emails in our inbox.
We also faced another famous symbol of Spain: the bull. Even though most of us are a bit scared of big bulls and the brave toreros in the Seville bullring, we still decided to be brave in a different way – on the plate. So we all sat together and had “rabo de toro”, the traditional Spanish stewed oxtail. It was delicious, very Andalusian, and much safer than meeting the bull inside the arena.
In the evening, it was time for Real Betis vs Utrecht. Green and white everywhere, fans singing, and us trying to follow the Spanish commentary while analysing the “control strategy” of Betis’ attack.
Betis vs Utrecht Ligue Europe
The tragedy of Five Guys
And then… the most painful part of the trip.
We passed by a Five Guys.
We looked at it.
We dreamed about it.
We… did not have time to go in.
This will officially remain one of the open issues of the SUNRISE project and a key objective for the next consortium meeting:
D1.1: Visit Five Guys – status: NOT COMPLETED.
SUNRISE may be finishing as a project, but in Sevilla it felt more like a new beginning — with smarter grids, new proposals, and one unfinished mission:
next time, we go inside Five Guys.