Ms Anna Carolina Tortora, an Italian/Colombian/Canadian MIT alumna with a background in Aerospace Engineering, heads the Department of Innovation Strategy for the ESO. Her mission is to accelerate the decarbonisation of the UK system to meet the country’s ambitious Net Zero targets by leveraging new digital solutions, grid technologies and services. She currently also heads up Virtual Energy System, to develop the first Digital Twin of the entire energy system in the UK. Prior to NGESO, Carolina held the equivalent position in Rome at the Italian TSO, Terna Spa, where she successfully led the deployment of the largest high voltage connected Storage plants (batteries) in Europe. Today, Carolina is a senior advisor to some of the world’s most promising battery start-ups and the recipient of numerous honours including being a featured speaker for 2017 TEDxRome, as well as being elected as one of Italy’s Top 40 under forty managers in 2016