Imagine you run an electricity grid and your neighbour country has too much wind power while you don't have enough. Right now, moving that extra power across borders is a mess — different rules, poor visibility, no shared storage. CROSSBOW built tools that let grid operators across Eastern Europe share renewable energy and storage like a single team, tested by 8 real transmission operators in 13 countries. Think of it as creating a shared electricity "bank account" where countries deposit surplus clean energy and withdraw when they need it.
Electricity grids across Europe are struggling to absorb growing amounts of wind and solar power, especially when the energy is generated in one country but needed in another. Current cross-border infrastructure lacks the coordination tools, shared storage, and market rules to move clean energy efficiently — leading to curtailment, higher operational costs, and wasted renewable capacity.
CROSSBOW delivered a Virtual Storage Plant (VSP) framework that pools distributed and centralized storage for ancillary services, network planning and observability platforms, ICT infrastructure for a cross-border coordination centre, and a complete integrated ecosystem demonstrated in preliminary and final trials with 8 TSOs. In total, 48 deliverables were produced.
If you are a TSO struggling to balance renewable energy flows at your borders — CROSSBOW developed and demonstrated a cross-border management platform tested by 8 TSOs across 13 countries. The Virtual Storage Plant lets you pool distributed and centralized storage to offer ancillary services, reducing operational costs while increasing the share of clean energy you can handle.
If you are a storage operator or aggregator looking to monetize flexibility services across borders — CROSSBOW built a Virtual Storage Plant (VSP) framework that enables new market participants to offer ancillary services to grid operators. The transnational wholesale market model defines fair payment schemes, opening revenue streams across 13 countries in Eastern Europe.
If you are an ICT vendor serving power grid operators — CROSSBOW developed network observability platforms, planning tools, and ICT infrastructure for a cross-border coordination centre. With 20 industry partners already involved and demonstrations completed in at least 3 countries, there is a ready market for deploying these tools at scale across Eastern European TSOs.
The project's EU contribution is not publicly listed in the dataset. However, as an Innovation Action with 30 partners and 48 deliverables including full-scale demonstrations, the tools were built to production-grade standards. Contact the coordinator for licensing and deployment pricing.
Yes. The CROSSBOW integrated ecosystem went through both preliminary and final demonstrations with 8 Transmission System Operators in Eastern Europe. Results were validated across at least 3 different countries per use case, confirming real-world performance under actual grid conditions.
With 20 industry partners and 6 universities in the consortium, IP is likely shared across multiple entities. The Virtual Storage Plant framework, network planning tools, and ICT infrastructure each may have separate licensing terms. Contact the coordinator ETRA Investigacion y Desarrollo SA (Spain) for specifics.
CROSSBOW was demonstrated across 13 countries: Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and the UK. The primary focus is Eastern and South-Eastern Europe where cross-border renewable integration challenges are most acute.
The VSP framework pools distributed and centralized storage units into a single controllable asset that can offer ancillary services to grid operators. Two versions were released during the project. This lets storage owners monetize their capacity by participating in cross-border balancing markets.
CROSSBOW defined new business models for a transnational wholesale market, specifically designed to enable aggregators and new market players to participate. The models propose fair and sustainable payment for clean energy and aim to reduce operational costs for TSOs.
The project ran from November 2017 to April 2022 and is now closed. All 48 deliverables including final demonstrations are complete. The tools are ready for commercial deployment discussions with interested TSOs and energy companies.
The CROSSBOW consortium is unusually large and industry-heavy: 30 partners across 13 countries with a 67% industry ratio (20 out of 30). This signals serious commercial intent — most research projects have far fewer industry partners. The consortium spans South-Eastern and Central Europe (AT, BA, BG, DE, EL, ES, HR, ME, MK, RO, RS, SI, UK), which maps directly to the region where cross-border energy integration is most needed. The coordinator, ETRA Investigacion y Desarrollo SA from Spain, is a private research company. With 8 TSOs actively evaluating results and only 2 SMEs, this is clearly an enterprise-grade solution built for major grid operators, not a startup play.
ETRA Investigacion y Desarrollo SA (Spain) — use SciTransfer to get a warm introduction to the project coordinator
Want to connect with the CROSSBOW team to discuss deploying their cross-border grid management tools or Virtual Storage Plant? SciTransfer can arrange an introduction and provide a tailored briefing for your use case.
