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All-Energy 2026, Glasgow shows how the energy transition is rewiring mobility and intelligent transport systems
Glasgow has always had a certain electricity about it and during All-Energy 2026 that sense of charge felt entirely real! What began as the UK’s flagship clean energy showcase 25 years ago, now feels like something broader and far more ambitious. It has become a place where energy, mobility, digital infrastructure and intelligent transport systems meet in practical and increasingly urgent ways. This year that shift was impossible to miss. The conversations were not limited to megawatts or hydrogen purity levels. They focused on how the energy transition is changing the movement of people and goods and on how transport networks must adapt to a future shaped by electrification, automation and data led optimisation.
For the ITS community, All-Energy has quietly become one of the year’s most revealing events. It is where the energy sector shows transport planners what they will soon need to design for. It is where grid operators set out the constraints that mobility providers can no longer ignore. It is also where innovators demonstrate that these two worlds can finally work as one system instead of continuing as parallel universes. If events such as MOVE or Intertraffic present the current state of the art in transport, All-Energy increasingly reveals the forces that will define what comes next.
The event left three strong impressions.
Electric vehicles have been a familiar feature at All-Energy for years, yet the mood in 2026 was notably different. The debate has moved on from how adoption might be encouraged to how the consequences of mass adoption will be managed. Several exhibitors presented next generation smart charging platforms designed not only to optimise individual charging sessions but to co-ordinate them across whole towns and cities. These systems are no longer simple driver apps. They are aware of grid conditions, responsive to demand and increasingly connected to local authority traffic management systems.
One of the most discussed demonstrations came from a consortium of Scottish SMEs working with a major distribution network operator to trial dynamic charging zones that alter power availability according to real time grid conditions and predicted mobility demand. The system draws on roadside sensors, traffic flow analytics and substation telemetry to allocate charging capacity where it is needed most. In practice this means EV charging hubs that respond to the rhythm of the city, scaling up during quieter periods, reducing output when the grid is under strain and giving priority to essential fleets in emergencies.
For ITS professionals the significance is clear. Charging infrastructure is no longer a static asset. It is becoming an active node within the transport network and one that requires integration with UTMC systems, digital twins and predictive modelling tools. The days when EV charging could be treated as a separate planning exercise have passed.
Hydrogen has had a complicated relationship with the mobility sector, but Glasgow gave it a renewed sense of purpose. While passenger cars have largely moved in another direction, hydrogen is beginning to find a more convincing role in heavy transport, maritime applications and depot-based fleets. Several exhibitors showed hydrogen refuelling systems designed to integrate with fleet management platforms, allowing operators to schedule refuelling around duty cycles, route optimisation and forecasts of energy costs.
The standout announcement came from a collaboration between a UK electrolyser manufacturer and a European bus manufacturer which unveiled a modular hydrogen hub created specifically for urban public transport depots. What makes it especially relevant to ITS is the digital layer. The hub includes a real time optimisation engine that communicates with the operator’s scheduling software and adjusts hydrogen production and storage in line with the following day’s service plan. In effect it acts as an energy aware ITS tool that treats fuel availability as a dynamic variable rather than a fixed assumption.
This integration of energy forecasting with operational planning offers a clear view of what lies ahead. As fleets become more varied across battery electric, hydrogen and hybrid technologies, transport authorities will need systems that can manage multiple energy pathways with the same sophistication now applied to traffic flow.
If one technology dominated the conversation across sectors, it was the digital twin. Not the abstract and conceptual versions discussed a few years ago, but operational, data rich and continuously updated models that can simulate the relationship between transport demand, energy supply and environmental constraints.
Several UK cities shared early results from digital twin trials that combine transport modelling with grid capacity forecasting. These systems allow planners to test practical scenarios. They can examine what happens to the grid if a new mobility hub opens near a railway station, how peak time charging behaviour might shift if road pricing is introduced and what effect a new bus rapid transit corridor may have on local energy demand.
The most advanced example came from a Scottish local authority working with a major university to build a city scale twin that brings together traffic sensors, air quality monitors, EV charging data, weather forecasts and grid telemetry. The twin is already being used to plan the roll out of new charging hubs and to assess the effect of low emission zones on energy consumption. In many respects it represents the first practical demonstration in the UK of a genuinely integrated energy and mobility planning tool.
The conclusion from this is hard to miss, digital twins are no longer optional. They are becoming the main interface through which cities will plan, test and optimise both transport and energy systems.
One of the quieter yet more important themes at All-Energy was the growing convergence between smart street infrastructure and energy management systems. Several exhibitors presented street lighting networks capable of supporting EV charging, environmental sensing and V2X communications, all powered by adaptive energy management algorithms.
The idea of the streetlight as a multi service platform is not new, but its integration with energy systems is taking it in a new direction. One vendor demonstrated a lamppost-based charging solution that automatically adjusts charging rates in response to local grid constraints and communicates with nearby traffic signals to help avoid congestion around charging bays. Another showed a roadside cabinet that can host both traffic management equipment and microgrid controllers, allowing streets to function as semi-autonomous energy and mobility nodes.
This is the sort of quiet innovation that can easily be overlooked, yet it is likely to reshape how cities deploy ITS infrastructure. The boundary between transport assets and energy assets is steadily dissolving.
What made All-Energy 2026 feel different was the growing sense that the energy and mobility sectors are finally beginning to speak the same language. Grid operators spoke about transport demand curves. Mobility providers discussed energy flexibility markets. Local authorities described integrated planning rather than siloed strategies. That change in tone mattered because it suggested a wider cultural shift, not simply a run of new products or pilot projects.
For the ITS sector, that shift brings both opportunity and challenge. The opportunity lies in becoming the connective tissue between two fields that have historically developed apart from one another. The challenge is that ITS professionals will increasingly need to understand energy systems just as energy planners will need a firmer grasp of transport dynamics. The professions are moving closer together and the organisations best placed to succeed will be those willing to build expertise across both worlds.
Glasgow made one point unmistakably clear. The future of mobility will be shaped as much by kilowatts and hydrogen molecules as by algorithms and sensors. The organisations that thrive will be the ones that can work confidently at that intersection and turn joined up thinking into practical delivery on the ground. For anyone in ITS, All-Energy is no longer a peripheral date in the diary. It is becoming one of the places where the next phase of transport is being defined.
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