Control and operation tools for a RES-based energy system
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See in 5 min if you're eligible for Control and operation tools for a RES-based energy system offering max €69.0M funding💰 Funding Details
Control and operation tools for a RES-based energy system (HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-17)
Overview
This Horizon Europe Innovation Action (IA) targets large-scale demonstration and validation of hardware + software solutions that enable 40-45 % renewable electricity penetration across EU grids. With a maximum grant of €69 million per project, the call supports multi-country pilots that improve forecasting, flexibility and coordinated TSO–DSO operation.
What the EU Will Fund
* Design, prototyping & deployment of advanced control algorithms, real-time digital twins, AI-based forecasting tools and interoperable grid devices.
* Two or more physical pilots in different your country locations (at both transmission & distribution voltage levels) that jointly integrate massive volumes of wind and solar power.
* Cross-sector flexibility solutions (demand response, storage, EV fleets, sector coupling) tested as grid services.
* Best-practice frameworks & replicability guidelines that help reach the 42.5 % renewable target by 2030.
* Contribution to the BRIDGE initiative and open data sharing with EU repositories.
Mandatory Consortium Composition
1. ≥ 2 Transmission System Operators (TSOs)
2. ≥ 4 Distribution System Operators (DSOs)
3. ≥ 3 Renewable Energy Suppliers (≥ 2 non-dispatchable; both wind & solar represented)
4. ≥ 2 Energy-Service Providers (aggregators and/or storage operators)
Budget & Reimbursement
* Funding rate: 70 % for profit entities, 100 % for non-profit entities (standard IA rules).
* Indirect costs: 25 % flat rate of eligible direct costs.
* Lump-sum, unit or actual cost options available as per Horizon Model Grant Agreement.
Eligibility Snapshot
* Opening date: 06 May 2025
* Deadline: 02 Sept 2025, 17:00 (Brussels) – single stage.
* Eligible countries: EU Member States + Horizon Associated Countries (see Annex B).
* Technology Readiness Levels: Activities may start at TRL 5–6 and should reach TRL 8 at project end.
Evaluation Priorities
* Impact (50 %) – measurable contribution to 42.5 % RES target, scalability, policy uptake.
* Excellence (25 %) – scientific & technical ambition, digitalisation depth, risk mitigation.
* Quality & Efficiency of Implementation (25 %) – consortium strength, pilot credibility, data management.
Indicative Project Size & Duration
* EU grant request typically €15–30 million; larger budgets justified by multi-pilot scope.
* Project duration 48–60 months to accommodate design, build, testing and replication.
📊 At a Glance
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🇪🇺 Strategic Advantages
EU-wide Advantages and Opportunities for Control and operation tools for a RES-based energy system (HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D3-17)
1. Single Market Access
• Leverages the EU internal electricity market (IEM), giving pilots instant exposure to 450+ million consumers/prosumers in 27 Member States and associated countries.
• Harmonised cross-border trading platforms (XBID, Coupling) enable immediate monetisation of flexibility, demand-response and storage services developed in the project.
• Uniform Guarantee of Origin (GO) and upcoming European Energy Data Space standards simplify rollout of project tools to any EU utility without re-engineering.
2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange
• Mandatory multi-country pilots automatically create a living laboratory across different climatic conditions, grid codes and market designs.
• Inclusion of ≥2 TSOs and ≥4 DSOs stimulates unprecedented TSO-DSO-consumer/service-provider coordination on a continental scale.
• Access to EU platforms such as ETIP-SNET, BRIDGE and ERA-Net fosters peer-to-peer learning, replication and avoidance of duplicated R&D spending.
3. Alignment with Key EU Strategies
• Directly operationalises the Green Deal, Fit-for-55 and REPowerEU by delivering the digital & physical tools needed for 42.5-45 % RES by 2030.
• Supports Digital Europe Programme goals through AI-enhanced forecasting, edge-cloud control and cybersecurity-by-design architectures.
• Contributes to the EU Battery Action Plan, Hydrogen Strategy and Data Strategy via flexibility marketplaces, hybrid storage and open data models.
4. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits
• Project acts as a fast-track test-bed for forthcoming network codes on Demand-Side Flexibility and Cybersecurity.
• Streamlines compliance with EU Taxonomy, TEN-E and CEF Energy rules, reducing project-to-market time for consortium members.
• Provides feedback loops to ACER/ENTSO-E consultations, shaping EU-wide regulations in favour of project outputs.
5. Pan-European Innovation Ecosystem
• Access to 3,400+ Horizon Europe energy projects, 200+ Digital Innovation Hubs, EIT InnoEnergy and Living Labs for co-creation and validation.
• Synergies with flagship EU research infrastructures (e.g., JRC Smart Grid Lab, CERN openlab for AI) accelerate TRL 6→8 progression.
• Talent pipeline from Erasmus Mundus and Marie-Skłodowska-Curie actions ensures availability of high-skill researchers and engineers.
6. Funding Synergies & Leverage
• Blending potential with CEF Energy, InvestEU, Innovation Fund and national Recovery & Resilience Plans (RRF) to finance large-scale roll-outs.
• ERDF and Just Transition Fund can co-finance regional replication, especially in coal-dependent regions aiming for rapid RES adoption.
• LIFE Clean Energy Transition and ETS Modernisation Fund offer complementary grants for policy uptake, capacity building and citizen engagement.
7. EU-wide Scale and Impact Potential
• Standardised open-source toolkits and reference architectures developed under BRIDGE facilitate plug-and-play adoption by 2,800+ DSOs in Europe.
• Cross-border flexibility markets could unlock up to €12 billion/year in avoided grid reinforcement costs (EC estimations).
• Contribution to 55 MtCO₂/year reduction by 2030 by enabling higher RES hosting capacity and curtailment avoidance.
• Enhanced energy security by integrating >90 GW of additional wind/solar in congested corridors through coordinated TSO-DSO operation.
8. Strategic Recommendations for Proposers
• Form a consortium spanning at least North-South and East-West corridors to maximise climatic and regulatory diversity.
• Align pilots with ENTSO-E Digital Twin initiative to ensure long-term maintenance of project data/models.
• Integrate interoperability layers based on CIM/CGMES and European Energy Data Space blueprints to future-proof solutions.
• Plan early for blended finance (CEF Energy – Works) to move demonstrators to commercial deployment immediately after project end.
• Exploit BRIDGE Task Forces (Data Management, Regulation, Business Models) for continuous policy feedback and dissemination.
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Delivering on this call at EU scale unlocks efficiencies, market reach and regulatory influence that cannot be achieved within a single Member State, positioning successful consortia as first-movers in the rapidly digitalising, fully renewable European power system.
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