IN Brief:
- Eight transmission system operators have opened the second Grid Innovation Alliance technology call.
- The programme seeks monitoring, forecasting, load-flow control, uprating, and other approaches that increase usable network capacity.
- Successful proposals can progress into proof-of-concept projects with participating European transmission operators.
Eight European transmission system operators have opened a joint technology call aimed at increasing usable capacity on existing electricity networks as congestion rises across the continent. The Grid Innovation Alliance brings together Swissgrid, 50Hertz, Amprion, Elia, Red Eléctrica, RTE, TenneT, and Terna around technologies capable of being tested in operational transmission environments.
The second open call, titled “The Grid at its Limit”, runs from 10 September to 9 October 2026. Selected applicants are expected to pitch in Switzerland on 9 and 10 November, with the strongest proposals potentially progressing into proof-of-concept work with participating network operators.
The programme covers four broad areas: monitoring, sensor technology and forecasting; smarter system management and load-flow control; technologies for increasing the capacity and performance of existing networks; and more radical or cross-sector approaches not yet tested by the participating TSOs.
Europe’s network constraint cannot be addressed through new lines alone. Cables, overhead circuits, substations, transformers, and converter stations remain essential, but their planning and construction schedules can be considerably longer than those attached to renewable generation, storage, data centres, electrified transport, and industrial loads.
Existing infrastructure therefore has to carry more useful power while reinforcement proceeds. Dynamic monitoring can replace conservative fixed assumptions with better information about actual operating conditions, while improved forecasting can give control rooms a more accurate picture of how network loading is likely to develop over the following minutes or hours.
Transmission capacity is shaped by more than conductor nameplate ratings. Thermal conditions, contingencies, voltage behaviour, stability, maintenance outages, generation patterns, and the requirement to withstand credible faults all affect the amount of power that can be transferred securely through a network corridor.
Load-flow control offers another route to extracting capacity from a meshed system. Power does not follow commercial schedules automatically; it flows according to network impedance and system conditions. Equipment or control methods able to redirect those flows can reduce loading on constrained assets and make greater use of parallel routes.
Grid uprating addresses the physical equipment itself, potentially allowing existing corridors to carry more power through conductor replacement, improved cooling assumptions, modified operating limits, or other engineering changes. Such measures can avoid some of the planning and land requirements attached to entirely new routes, although they still require detailed technical assessment and outages for installation.
The Alliance is also inviting technologies originating outside the conventional power sector. Sensor engineering, telecommunications, analytics, advanced materials, automation, and other disciplines may offer transferable approaches, but transmission deployment sets a high threshold for reliability, cybersecurity, maintainability, and safe failure behaviour.
A promising prototype has to survive far more than a laboratory demonstration before it can influence the operating limit of a critical circuit. Operators need credible evidence that the equipment will remain accurate under electromagnetic interference, harsh weather, communications loss, component failure, maintenance activity, and the many abnormal conditions present on a live transmission network.
European policy is increasingly combining grid construction with more efficient operation of existing assets. Measures around flexibility and connection management recognise that unrestricted network capacity cannot always be offered immediately, particularly where renewable generation and new electricity demand are developing faster than reinforcement.
ENTSO-E has separately warned that congestion is increasing in frequency, variability, scale, and complexity as renewable generation and electrification grow. Market arrangements, redispatch, storage, demand flexibility, and physical network controls are consequently becoming more closely linked to the engineering limits of transmission infrastructure.
The eight participating TSOs operate some of Europe’s most heavily interconnected and constrained systems. TenneT faces acute connection pressure in the Netherlands and Germany, while 50Hertz and Amprion are delivering major German reinforcement programmes. Elia, RTE, Red Eléctrica, Terna, and Swissgrid face their own combinations of renewable integration, cross-border transfers, industrial demand, and ageing assets.
A multi-operator trial can also expose technology suppliers to different technical standards, network conditions, procurement requirements, and operating practices. A solution that works on one network may need substantial redesign before it can be deployed elsewhere, so proof-of-concept work across several TSOs can reveal interoperability problems before commercial rollout.
Additional digital capability brings a parallel security requirement. Recent ENTSO-E infrastructure-security proposals call for stronger physical protection, cybersecurity, offshore recovery arrangements, and cross-border emergency resources as electricity networks become more interconnected and digitally controlled.
New monitoring and remote-control equipment adds visibility and operating flexibility, but every additional communications interface also has to be authenticated, maintained, patched, and incorporated into operational-security arrangements. Capacity enhancement cannot come at the expense of protection or recovery capability.
Europe will still require large quantities of copper, aluminium, steel, cable, transformers, switchgear, converters, and civil construction. The Grid Innovation Alliance is testing whether better information and control can buy additional usable capacity from the assets already standing while those reinforcement programmes catch up.
Applications close on 9 October. The useful measure will come later, when selected technologies have been exposed to live grid conditions and operators can judge whether the capacity gains survive the reliability, protection, cybersecurity, and maintenance requirements of transmission operation.
