Deadline Date: April 13, 2026
The ERIA 2026 Acceleration Programme aims to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the electricity sector by driving the growth of early-stage startups that are building their MVP, validating their business model, market, or legal structure.
The programme’s focus areas and priority challenges for 2026 include intelligent O&M monitoring for photovoltaic plants, new digital services for the low-voltage grid, affordable home batteries for flexibility, and large-scale household micro-flexibility with customer control.
The programme is structured around four main challenges: advanced O&M for photovoltaic plants, exploring how drones, robotics, and advanced analytics can detect and prioritize PV plant incidents to reduce travel, manual inspections, and improve O&M efficiency; new digital services over the low-voltage network, leveraging grid digitization and behind-the-meter asset orchestration to create scalable digital solutions while ensuring security, privacy, and distributor neutrality; compact and affordable home batteries, deploying flexible, cost-effective energy storage solutions for homes with contracted power between 3 and 7 kW to provide bill savings and enable new energy services; and scalable home micro-flexibility with customer control, enabling domestic flexibility at scale in homes without EV or aerothermal systems, reducing costs, improving customer experience, and preparing for future flexibility markets.
The acceleration programme runs for approximately six months, beginning with the launch Bootcamp in mid-May and concluding with Demo Day in December 2026. A €10,000 prize will be awarded to the startup demonstrating the highest commitment, strongest project evolution, and best use of the support and resources offered throughout the programme.
To participate, startups must be pre-seed or seed energy sector companies based in Spain or Europe, have at least two full-time founders or CEOs, be legally incorporated and registered, and offer an innovative solution aligned with one of ERIA’s proposed challenges.
For more information, visit ERIA InnoHub.
