FLEX-BEAT — From Legacy Systems X to Building Energy Assistants
A Horizon Europe-funded project that turns existing building management systems into AI-powered Building Energy Assistants (BEAs). BEAs learn how occupants live and how buildings behave, cutting energy costs and COâ‚‚ emissions while making buildings reliable sources of flexibility for the power grid. BEAs will be co-created and tested in nine pilots across Finland, Slovenia, Germany, Greece and Lithuania: a supermarket, homes, shared and supported housing, a student apartment complex, an industrial site, a museum, a school and an office building.
EU Funding: €3,999,380.04
Program: Horizon Europe Cluster 5Â
Pilots: 4 main + 5 replication
Countries: Finland, Slovenia, Germany, Greece, Lithuania
GA-101325735
Buildings are moving from passive energy consumers to active players in the energy system, but three things hold them back. Smart systems rarely adapt to the real needs and habits of the people inside them. Legacy controls cannot balance comfort, prices, local solar and grid signals at the same time. And every new building means costly, manual integration work. FLEX-BEAT tackles all three with the BEA Framework: co-created with occupants, facility managers and grid actors in nine pilots across all five EU climate zones, compliant with the new demand-side flexibility standards IEC 62746-4 and IEC 63402-2-2, and designed to replicate cheaply from one building to the next
Project Objectives:
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Co-create Building Energy Assistants with at least 100 users from diverse social groups, including vulnerable households
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Give occupants and facility managers natural, AI-assisted interfaces to understand and steer their building
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Cut energy costs by at least 30% and COâ‚‚ emissions by at least 25% through smarter energy and flexibility management
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Keep indoor comfort within users' preferences at least 95% of the time
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Improve the accuracy of baseline and flexibility forecasts by at least 20% with digital twins of buildings and occupants
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Reduce the integration effort for legacy building systems by at least 80% with AI-assisted tools
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Connect buildings to aggregators, wholesale markets and grid operators through standard-compliant interfaces
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Validate BEAs at TRL 8 in nine pilots across Finland, Slovenia, Germany, Greece and Lithuania
The BEA Framework:
User Empowerment
Energy & Flexibility Management
Cost-efficient Replication
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Occupant UI and AI agents
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Digital Twin of Occupants
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Facility manager agents
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Renovation planning tools
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Customer Energy Manager
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Resource Managers for HVAC, PV, batteries and EV charging
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Building Energy Twin
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SAREF semantic adapters
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DevSecOps tools
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AI-assisted legacy system integration
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Aggregator and grid operator tools
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Building data space
CO-DESIGN AND CO-DEVELOPMENT · ALL THREE PHASES
Main Pilots
Supermarket
FINLAND · OULU
A 2,000 m² S-Group supermarket with a CO₂-based HVAC-R system, 50 kWp PV and a 2,000-litre thermal tank. The BEA uses refrigeration and heating for demand response in the Nord Pool wholesale market while keeping staff and customers comfortable.
10 single-family houses
SLOVENIA · CELJE
Homes with heat pumps, PV, batteries, EV chargers and smart meters. Existing energy management systems become BEAs that maximise self-consumption and cut costs under time-of-use tariffs, while families set their own preferences.
Shared housing
GERMANY · EGLHARTING, MUNICH
A socially integrative shared living facility for up to twelve young adults. It receives a 10 kW hybrid heat pump, 10 kWp PV and a 20 kWh battery, with the BEA focused on comfort, lower peaks and clear feedback for residents and care staff.
Tsitsanis Museum
GREECE · TRIKALA
The former Trikala prison, now a museum with year-round visitors. A new battery shares stored solar energy with the museum café and nearby municipal offices, and occupancy-aware control protects visitors and collections.
Student housing
FINLAND · ESPOO
Seven connected HOAS buildings (7,750 m²) housing 310 students, heated by ground-source heat pumps with 98 kWp PV. The BEA balances spot prices, peak tariffs and solar output to make energy more affordable for low-income tenants.
SLOVENIA · CELJE REGION
Supported living house
A home for 16 residents with special needs, supported around the clock. A new heat pump works alongside gas heating and 13.6 kW PV, replicating the single-family BEA with gas–electric optimisation.
Irlbacher Glas industrial site
GERMANY · BAVARIA
A glass production site with offices, about 2 MWp PV, a 700 kWh battery, CHP units and 13 EV chargers. The BEA lowers the site’s carbon footprint and reuses waste heat from production.
27th Primary School
GREECE · TRIKALA
A 3,050 m² school with rooftop PV and battery storage. Smart thermostats, comfort sensors and a dashboard for teachers enable smart heating and peak reduction without compromising learning.
Office building
LITHUANIA · VILNIUS
A 2,405 m² office for about 100 workstations with a Schneider BMS and 29.6 kW PV. New 100 kWh batteries support peak shaving, solar self-consumption and operation during outages, with AI agents for facility managers.
Replication PilotsÂ
FINAL VALIDATION · PHASE 3
BENEFITS:
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For occupants and communities:
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Comfort kept within each user's preferences
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Lower energy bills from smarter use of solar, storage and tariffs
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Plain-language explanations and AI assistants instead of complex controls
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Elderly residents, students, young adults in care and pupils help shape the design
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For building owners, municipalities and the grid:
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At least 30% cost savings and 25% lower COâ‚‚ emissions
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Flexibility for wholesale, TSO reserve and DSO local markets
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80% less effort to integrate legacy building systems
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Renovation planning tools with realistic payback times