CurrENT responds to the public consultation on the European Innovation Act

CurrENT Europe has submitted its response to the European Commission’s consultation on the European Innovation Act.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation inviting interested stakeholders to contribute to the European Innovation Act which aims to facilitate the research, development, deployment and commercialization of innovative ideas on the market. The European Commission wants to foster an innovation-friendly environment in the EU to bolster our competitiveness.

Innovation will be central to achieving Europe’s energy and climate goals. But it cannot remain confined to pilot projects or isolated initiatives, it must be scaled, deployed, and embedded in Europe’s energy system. Innovative Grid Technologies have the potential to make our grids more prepared, resilient and efficient for the future.

That is why, CurrENT calls on the European Commission to integrate key elements to its proposal:

1. 1. Conducting stress tests that focus on whether the legislation creates space for future grid technology breakthrough and upscaling by considering elements such as technology maturity, market access or capital attraction.
   2. Enabling regulatory sandboxes for net-zero technologies to be applied to innovative grid technologies and making sure that test results from a regulatory sandbox is shared across jurisdictions to avoid duplications while accelerating deployment.
   3. Proposing a better coordination and alignment of national and EU innovation programs and investments.
   4. Prioritizing funding access for enabling technologies such as innovative grid technologies. The innovation fund, Horizon Europe and CEF can be difficult to access due to complexity or eligibility requirements.
   5. Introducing better incentives for private investors and encourage private buyers to adopt procurement practices that promote the scale up of innovative grid technologies including OPEX-based incentives and requiring DSOs to consider innovative solutions before investing in grid reinforcements.
   6. Facilitating access to public procurement for innovative grid technologies and revise national procurement rules to facilitate eligibility to tenders and scale up of innovative grid technologies.