During our 2024 Annual General Meeting in Berlin, Kimmo Hallamaa was elected as President of EuropeOn, after serving as Vice-President during the last term. Discover a bit more about him and his views on the future of EuropeOn!

Could you start by sharing a bit about yourself and your work?

My work is in transition right now because I have sold three electrical contracting companies and I still have one holding company left. I am trying to figure out what to do next. I remain a minority owner in electrical contracting, but I am no longer actively involved in the management of those sold companies. On the other hand, I have a business of my own, which is a member of STUL (EuropeOn’s Finnish member association), and I have to find a new direction for it. So, my current focus is on financial calculations, business plans, and strategy.

What are the key topics that you see electrical contractors in Finland focusing on?

At the moment the electrical market is challenging because the construction sector is in recession. That being said, we should work on accelerating the green transition much more than what we are currently doing. For this, electrical contractors should focus on the energy saving side of installations.

Related to grid flexibility, we have quite an interesting electricity price market at the moment. As we are replacing fossil fuels with wind and other renewables, the price of electricity will fluctuate much more and very frequently, for example every 15 minutes. As a consequence, it will increasingly discourage end-users to sign fixed electric contracts, because variable contracts are more likely to reduce energy bills. Therefore, electrical contractors should focus on providing solutions such as battery storage, solar photo voltaic (PV), heat pump installations, and automation.

Finland recently joined NATO and the Commission President’s new political guidelines include a pillar on defence and security. How do electrical contractors contribute to addressing such challenges?

Basically, off-grid solutions are the way to ‘keep the wheels turning’ when big infrastructures cannot operate, and as a means to ensure Finland’s (or Europe’s) energy security. When we talk about decentralised electricity production, we automatically refer to the solutions our sector provide and which I mentioned earlier, like battery storage, backup power systems… But also, to having generators in the right places.

Looking at what happened in Ukraine: an electricity power plant can always be targeted and bombed, but decentralised and local production makes it much harder to disrupt the entire system.

Finally, it is quite interesting to see how we can combine the green transition rationale with concerns over security of energy supply. The technical elements are quite similar, but we can take them a step further to accelerate the green transition. So investing in these solutions is not a waste of time or money – it is what I call wisdom.

Being a part of EuropeOn, do you see that other members face common challenges in their countries?

I see the same challenges in each country. And there will be more or less the same kind of solutions as well. Electric systems are getting more complicated, so we need more trainings and education. At the same time, people are getting older. We are losing experienced installers and technicians and it seems to be really challenging to get replacements. So training and skills is a common topic among EuropeOn members.

What I see is that the Nordic countries might be a little ahead when it comes to producing electricity from renewable energy sources. In the rest of Europe, the green transition is a bigger challenge. That being said, it is clear that all the associations of electrical contractors represented in EuropeOn are actively working on helping their companies access the energy transition market. Sharing common concerns and challenges in our European confederation is valuable.

EuropeOn has just turned 70… But how has the association evolved during the last years? And what is yet to come?

What I have seen is that EuropeOn has become more ‘professional’ in terms of management. There is a clearer strategy, strategic plans, defined action plans, etc. And I also see more involvement from EuropeOn members, which is great. Each national association is investing human resources (for example by delegating policy or technical experts to meetings) and we have a strong network that is able to produce useful output, such as our brand-new Sector Report.

At the moment, the electrical contracting sector is gaining momentum because electricity is a solution to save the world as we know it. Of course, electricity production must become greener and cleaner. But it is not enough to produce it, it must also be distributed and used in a smart way. Our sector is involved at every step and EuropeOn is doing an important work to make sure that there is the adequate level of regulation to accelerate electrification.

I am quite happy to see that we have a good performing team in Brussels and that our members are so active. I believe that we are going to achieve very good results with the work we do: influencing, informing, sharing best practices, and working together. 

Now that you are the new EuropeOn’s president, what are your expectations? And how will your presidency differ from that of Martin Bailey?

It shouldn’t matter who the President is, it is all about teamwork. I have been in the Board earlier, and Martin Bailey is staying in the Board now that he finished his term – which I am very happy about. I’m also glad to have Emma Elheim Karlsson, who served as Management Commitee Member of the Board for the past three years, as Vice-President now. The three of us have already been working together for the last three years, soI’d say this is a continuation of the longer term strategy and plans that we have done.

What is important is not what I want, but what is relevant for Europe and for our members. That is not a one-man agenda, or a one-woman agenda. And it is also important that we work long term, because the challenges we are tackling are complex and cannot be solved overnight by the industry or policymakers. We need justification, background, scientific research and facts to trigger awareness and change. And that is what EuropeOn works on and what we intend to keep on doing.