“We are stagnant,” Gwenaelle Avice Huet, executive vice-president of industrial automation at Schneider Electric, told Energy Source. “Industry in Europe has a huge potential for electrification and still it’s not going that fast.” A recent report by Schneider estimates that the EU could save €250bn in energy imports if it reached 50 per cent of electrification in final energy use by 2040 — a target set by the European Commission. This would take a large chunk out of the bloc’s annual fossil fuel import bill of €380bn, Schneider said.