The Industrial Flexibility Knowledge Hub (IFKH) is LEONARDO’s central platform for knowledge sharing, tools, and capacity building. It serves industries, researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders interested in industrial energy flexibility
LEONARDO is a LIFE-funded European project (2025–2028) coordinated by Fondazione Bruno Kessler (Italy). It supports Europe's clean energy transition by unlocking industrial demand-side flexibility, enabling industries to actively participate in energy flexibility markets through innovative Energy Management Systems (EMSs) and real-life demonstrations.
The project aims to increase grid flexibility by connecting and enhancing EMSs across clusters of nearby industrial facilities. LEONARDO develops interoperable digital solutions, validates them in three pilot sites, and provides tools and knowledge to help industries access flexibility markets while reducing peak electricity demand.
By demonstrating scalable and market-ready solutions, LEONARDO contributes to a more resilient and sustainable European energy system. The project is expected to strengthen grid stability, increase industrial participation in flexibility markets, and provide replicable best practices for wider adoption across Europe.
The pilots will focus on helping industries and energy operators use electricity more efficiently and flexibly. This includes shifting or reducing energy consumption when needed, using renewable energy and storage systems more effectively, and exploring new ways for industrial sites to participate in energy and flexibility markets.
The pilot will also test the use of solar power, batteries, hydrogen production and other flexible energy resources. Together, these technologies will demonstrate how an industrial area can actively manage its energy use while supporting the wider electricity system.
Southeastern Styria – Austria
The Austrian pilot involves two industrial companies with different energy needs, operational characteristics and electricity supply arrangements.
The pilot will investigate how industrial flexibility can be used to support a flexible response to dynamic electricity prices, considering the specific processes and flexibility potential available at the two sites. It will also assess how these flexibility resources could potentially contribute to future DSO-level flexibility mechanisms, for example in response to local grid constraints and increasing renewable electricity generation.
The pilot will demonstrate how the defined flexibility approaches could be applied in the two industrial sites using the LEONARDO tools and services.
Bulgaria–Greece Industrial Cluster
The Bulgaria–Greece pilot will demonstrate the business potential of industrial flexibility as a strategic energy asset, with a particular focus on cross-border cooperation and participation in electricity markets.
Three major Bulgarian industrial companies will coordinate their available flexibility and explore how production processes can be adjusted in response to energy-market conditions, grid requirements, and price signals. The objective is to identify opportunities to optimize energy consumption and production planning while maintaining productivity, product quality, operational reliability, and safety.
An important element of the pilot is the cross-border dimension. The project will investigate whether flexibility available from Bulgarian industrial consumers can be aggregated and utilized to support the Greek electricity system through the existing interconnection between Bulgaria and Greece. This will provide valuable insight into the technical, operational, regulatory, and commercial requirements for cross-border flexibility services.
The pilot will therefore demonstrate how industrial flexibility can become a source of business value while supporting grid stability and the integration of renewable energy.
Project video (long version)
Project video (short version)
This section provides access to public project deliverables, including technical reports, methodologies, and guidelines developed throughout the project.
Work Package 2 - Defining the basis for providing industrial flexibility-based market services capitalizing on EMS innovations
Work Package 3 - End-to-End Semantic Interoperability and User-Dashboard
Work Package 4 - Mining and Pooling Industrial Flexibility Facilitation
Work Package 5 - LEONARDO Integration, Testing, Performance Evaluation and TSO-DSO Coordination Schemes
Work Package 6 - Sustainability, replication and exploitation of project results
Practical documents supporting the design, implementation, and operation of aggregated EMSs and industrial flexibility solutions.
The Industrial Flexibility Knowledge Hub offers educational and capacity-building resources such as webinar recordings, workshop materials, training modules, and practical guidance for industries entering flexibility markets
Webinars
These materials support the development of new skills and competencies in energy flexibility.
