Research, Development and Innovation Reports

ENTSO-E’s RDC publishes three major reports on TSO’s RDI planning, activity and monitoring:

RDI Roadmap outlines the long term methodology that TSOs are using for their RDI policy in response to the EU climate and energy objectives.
RDI Implementation Plan paves the way for the key milestones of the RDI Roadmap to become reality.
RDI Monitoring Report assesses RDI activities in Europe’s electricity sector against ENTSO-E’s RDI roadmap.

Besides these ENTSO-E’s RDI Committee releases position papers and technical reports

Roadmap 2020 – 2030

The energy system is going through radical changes with global trends such as decarbonisation and digitalisation. The European Green Deal aims to catalyse this transformation to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Only electrification and sectoral integration of energy end uses can deliver on this ambitious goal placing the electricity system and the electricity grid at the core of the transition, away from fossil fuels. This calls for electricity TSOs to develop bold and agile strategies as integrators of technologies and solutions.

With three main clusters and six flagships and clearly defined milestones, ENTSO-E’s Research, Development and Innovation Roadmap (RDI Roadmap) for the period 2020-2030 aims to be an ambitious innovation planning tool, pooling up the vision and needs of TSOs with the surrounding ecosystems, policy experts and other stakeholders.

As one of ENTSO-E’s legal mandates, the RDI Roadmap 2020-2030 was subject to a public consultation and opinion by ACER.

RDI Roadmap 2020 – 2030

Previous Roadmaps

Implementation Plan

The Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Implementation Report 2021-2025 lays out thirteen project concepts to be initiated by TSOs in collaboration with key stakeholders and supported by policy makers and regulatory authorities in the coming years.

The Report builds on the vision set out in the form of 6 Flagship topics in the ENTSO-E RDI Roadmap 2020 –2030 and translates its milestones into tangible RDI project ideas. The Implementation Report justifies the prioritisation of activities and serves as a guiding instrument for TSOs and the wider energy sector to prepare and activate urgently required RDI projects.

The thirteen project concepts are more tangibly outlined than in earlier reports, more system-challenge focused, and less technology driven. They still focus on what is relevant for TSO core activities in ensuring a cost-effective, secure energy transition. An overarching aim is to bring innovative ideas to a technology readiness level which allows their uptake in grid planning, asset management and operations.

RDI Implementation Report

Previous Implementation Plans

Monitoring Report

TSOs’ RDI projects will benefit society mainly via improving electricity network management, reducing carbon emissions and developing more efficient business models & market designs. For most projects, exploitation of results is foreseen to begin in less than 5 years. However, most results need significant investment before they can be exploited.

ENTSO-E’s RDI Monitoring Report 2018 assesses the progress of European TSO-related research and development (RDI) activities defined in ENTSO-Es RDI Roadmap 2017–2026. This report is based on a survey of 57 RDI projects. To complete this sample, 131 additional projects in the field of digitalisation, as well as 18 projects related to flexibility services were considered in less details.

The results of this RDI Monitoring Report will be used to assign action priorities for updating the ENTSO-E RDI Roadmap, in particular to improve the capturing of macro-trends such as the digitalisation of power systems, decentralisation of operations, and sector coupling. The new RDI Roadmap will be released later this year.

Monitoring Report

Previous Monitoring Reports

Position Papers and Technical Reports

The RDI Committee of ENTSO-E publishes papers and reports on various topics, stemming from the milestones of the RDI Roadmap. These papers build the basis for future implementation activities or provide points of focus for the TSOs related to subjects which appear on a longer time horizon.