This article explains the formation of a new Innovation Alliance by eight major European transmission system operators (TSOs) to tackle the accelerating impact of climate change on electricity networks.
It outlines who is involved, why the alliance was created, the technical challenges they face, and the open call inviting technology providers, startups, research institutions and established firms to propose weather-aware diagnostic and early-warning systems to strengthen grid resilience.
Why this Alliance matters for European grid resilience
The increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather—storms, floods, heatwaves and wildfires—is stretching current mitigation measures to their limits.
Without improvements in weather-aware monitoring and diagnostics, the reliability of the European electricity grid will be harder and more expensive to maintain.
For operators, the priority is clear: move from reactive to predictive operations so networks can absorb shocks with minimal disruption.
That shift requires collaboration across utilities, technology vendors and research communities to create practical, deployable systems.
The scope of the challenge
Climate-driven events affect transmission assets in multiple, often interacting ways: conductor icing, lightning strikes, corrosion from salt pollution, vegetation-related fires, and extreme wind loading.
Each threat has different signatures and timescales, which complicates sensing, diagnostics, and operational decision-making.
Who’s in the Innovation Alliance
The group formed in July and brings together eight prominent TSOs who collectively operate a substantial portion of Europe’s high-voltage grid.
Their combined footprint gives the Alliance both operational insight and market leverage to scale successful solutions.
Members and their mandate
The Alliance members are Elia Group, 50Hertz, TenneT, Terna, RTE, Swissgrid, Red Eléctrica, and Amprion.
They seek to accelerate development of early-warning and diagnostic tools that detect and assess the operational effects of climate-related events, enabling faster, more precise mitigation and restoration actions.
What technologies the Alliance is seeking
The Alliance has issued an open call as the first phase of a multi-year program aimed at building a future-proof European electricity grid.
They want solutions that are not only innovative, but also operationally reliable and scalable across diverse environments.
Key capabilities sought from providers
Technology submissions should focus on weather-aware diagnostics and early-warning capabilities that:
How innovators can engage
The Alliance is explicitly inviting a broad community of contributors: technology providers, start-ups, research institutions, and established firms.
By fostering open collaboration, the TSOs aim to move proven concepts into pilots and then into fleet-wide adoption.
What successful proposals should demonstrate
Proposals should combine robust sensing, advanced analytics, and clear operational use-cases. Practical considerations—such as integration with existing operational systems, cyber security, maintainability and cost-benefit evidence—will be critical to adoption.
Amprion in particular has highlighted the need for scenario-based modelling that helps operators trade off resilience investments against cost and system reliability.
For innovators, this is an opportunity to help shape Europe’s response to a changing climate and to bring commercially viable solutions to a network that serves hundreds of millions of customers.
If you have a weather-aware diagnostic, now is the moment to engage.
Here is the source article for this story: ‘Extreme weather threatens our grids’ – EU TSOs launch open call for help