Launch of the TSO Innovation Alliance: Leading European Transmission Grid Operators Join Forces for Innovation and Energy Transition
Eight European Transmission System Operators (TSO) start a collaboration to accelerate the development of innovative solutions that improve the resilience and efficiency of the European electricity grid
“Weather and Grid Resilience” will be the first area chosen by the Alliance to work on: an innovation challenge will be launched to find startups with innovative solutions to overcome the risks posed to the grid by increasingly extreme climate events and facilitate the integration of weather-dependent energy sources
Today marks the launch of the new TSO Innovation Alliance, bringing together leading European Transmission System Operators to drive innovation in the electricity sector.
Europe’s strategic autonomy and industrial competitiveness depend on an innovative, resilient, and forward-looking grid. Grids are the backbone not only of the energy transition but also of economic prosperity, by providing access to affordable, reliable, and decarbonized electricity. To deliver on the shared net-zero goal, it is necessary to harness the accelerating potential of innovation and recognize it as a strategic asset in a world defined by competition over technologies, supply chains, and system leadership. Europe must lead in energy innovation to shape global standards, reduce dependency on third countries, and strive for global competitiveness as a technology frontrunner.
The Alliance puts that commitment into practice, through actions fostering the innovation ecosystem, together with joint research and development on solutions that will boost the resilience, efficiency, and technological advancement of the continent’s electric infrastructure.
The TSO Innovation Alliance was officially established with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between major European Transmission System Operators which become the founding members of the organisation: Terna (Italy); RTE (France); Swissgrid (Switzerland); the Elia Group (which includes Elia in Belgium and 50Hertz in Germany); TenneT (Netherlands); Red Eléctrica (Spain); and Amprion (Germany).
The Alliance has been established in response to the growing desire for leading European TSOs to assume a more active role in shaping the future of the electricity sector. The members share common challenges and priorities and aim to coordinate their innovation efforts more closely, leveraging expertise and resources. By aligning on strategic technology needs and promoting shared priorities, they seek to guide market developments and foster innovative approaches and solutions that meet the evolving challenges of the energy transition.
Dr. Christoph Müller, chairman of Amprion:„The TSO Alliance provides an excellent platform for collaboration, uniting efforts to address essential challenges in the energy transition by leveraging collective commitment, combined ideas, and expertise to develop future-oriented solutions.“
The Alliance has set itself the goal of pooling knowledge and resources in order to overcome shared technical and operational challenges, accelerate the implementation of innovative solutions to guarantee greater resilience and reliability for electricity grids across Europe, and to achieve greater stability in the electricity transmission service.
The TSO Innovation Alliance, therefore, takes the form of a shared platform to promote open innovation initiatives: a collaborative environment in which innovative solutions can be identified, pilot projects developed, and perspectives on emerging technologies and methodologies are shared.
Each year, the Alliance will launch an innovation program focused on scouting new technological solutions for shared challenges, exchanging metrics and good practices, and fostering collaboration across TSOs. The most promising ideas will be selected through an open call to the European startup ecosystem, in order to find the best available solutions and test them through joint proof-of-concepts.
The first area in which the Alliance will demonstrate its added value is “Weather and Grid Resilience”, a field where climate impacts, operational security, and technological innovation converge.
Europe is facing an increase in extreme weather events and power systems are shifting towards weather-dependent energy sources. These two factors underscore the urgent need for innovative solutions to ensure grid resilience across Europe. That is why the Alliance has identified “Weather and Grid Resilience” as its first innovation challenge. Reflecting this focus, the challenge will invite startups to address the operational and infrastructural risks posed by increasingly unpredictable weather events. The results anticipated from this initiative shall give the Alliance’s European TSOs the chance to explore and test innovative solutions of two main types: data pooling tools, in order to share meteorological scenarios and data on extreme climate events at European level; and probabilistic models for real-time data analysis and the programming of maintenance operations, including predictive maintenance, on transmission lines which straddle national borders.
The TSO Innovation Alliance is therefore the best platform from which to tackle a challenge that knows no boundaries, both in the sense that it influences the management and functioning of all energy infrastructure, and that it quite literally crosses national borders due to the increasingly interconnected nature of Europe’s electricity systems.
