As the world was starting to recover from the COVID-19 emergency, in early 2022 another crisis struck: with the Russian invasion of Ukraine starting in late February, almost the entirety of the European Commission activities for 2022 shifted away from the foreseen Working Programme to focus on sanctions and new measures to ensure security of supply. The situation aggravated in the past months: with winter approaching, gas reserves needed to be filled to ensure heating and electricity would be available to industries and citizens for the coming seasons, and sky-high prices started impacting the continent.
09.01.2023 / News
The second StoRIES Transnational Access Call
StoRIES is a four-year EU-funded project which aims to facilitate and accelerate the energy transition, in particular in the field of new materials for energy storage and hybrid energy storage solutions. In order to achieve more performing, competitive and cost-effective energy storage devices, the project fosters a European ecosystem of industry and research organisations on energy storage technologies aimed at developing novel concepts and technologies. StoRIES brings together a consortium of more than 30 beneficiaries from 17 countries, including ESFRI landmarks, technology institutes, universities and industrial partners to jointly improve the economic performance of storage technologies.
Second StoRIES TransNational Access Call
Through StoRIES Transnational Access (TNA) calls, researchers can have free access to 64 world-class Research Infrastructures, addressing all five technology areas from electrochemical energy storage over to chemical, thermal, mechanical up to superconducting magnetic energy storage. The second call for accessing the research infrastructures is now open: https://www.storiesproject.eu/calls
Call topic:Solutions for hybrid energy storage systems to enable long-duration stationary storage
Date of closing:31.01.2023
The call topic is open to different sources of innovation: material research, development and testing of a component, device or device cluster, simulation of systems or system components, etc. and the integration of the innovation in the energy system.
The topic addresses a multitude of different energy storage technologies and their combinations for enabling long-duration (from several hours to months) energy storage and is explicitly open to all TRLs. Further assessment of the EU energy storage needs (regardless of short or long-duration) is also strongly invited and encouraged. For additional information, please visit StoRIES website.
As the world was starting to recover from the COVID-19 emergency, in early 2022 another crisis struck: with the Russian invasion of Ukraine starting in late February, almost the entirety of the European Commission activities for 2022 shifted away from the foreseen Working Programme to focus on sanctions and new measures to ensure security of supply. The situation aggravated in the past months: with winter approaching, gas reserves needed to be filled to ensure heating and electricity would be available to industries and citizens for the coming seasons, and sky-high prices started impacting the continent.
EASE responds to the European Commission’s Public Consultation on the European Grids Package, calling for clearer guidance and obligations on flexibility assessments in planning processes. This includes common methodologies, improved DSO-TSO coordination, and enhanced grid connection procedures. Storage should be considered a standard resource for grid services and reflected accordingly in system planning, cost-benefit analyses, and network development scenarios.
The European Commission has recently launched a stakeholder consultation on its upcoming guidance regarding grid connections in situations where capacity constraints exist. In response, EASE urged reforms to tackle stalled “ghost” projects blocking viable energy storage. Key recommendations include a “first-ready, first-served” model, transparent grid data, and more flexible rules to accelerate the clean energy transition.
On 27 May 2025, over 200 participants attended the webinar on the "EASE Guidelines on Safety Best Practices for Battery Energy Storage Systems". The Guidelines are designed to support the safe deployment of outdoor, utility-scale lithium-ion (Li-ion) BESS across Europe.
Energy storage is a key enabler of the European Union’s decarbonisation and energy security objectives, yet current grid fee structures often act as barriers to its deployment. This position paper outlines critical challenges related to network tariffs and charges that create market distortions and discourage much-needed investments in flexibility.
