Buildings as power players: Showcasing progress from six European smart demos

The European energy transition demands more than just renewable generation; it requires resilient, flexible energy consumers. Intelligent grid forming buildings are designed to interact seamlessly with energy networks and markets, putting them at the forefront of decarbonisation.

WeForming's pioneering approach focuses on solving key challenges: creating new market roles for buildings, boosting their physical interaction with the grid, and ensuring all technologies are interoperable. The project's solutions are being validated across six real-life demos, which address diverse systems, climates and economic conditions across Europe.

Innovation in action

WeForming’s core methodology centres on three main pillars being tested across the demos:

• Smart technology: Developing solutions like real-time controllers, AI-powered optimisation and digital twins to manage complex energy assets (batteries, heat pumps, EV chargers).
• Interoperability: Creating a standardised approach (middleware and data space connector) to enable seamless, trusted data sharing and service exchange between buildings and the wider energy ecosystem.
• New business models: Testing market-driven models that incentivise buildings to provide services (like frequency containment and flexibility) to the grid, turning them into revenue generators.

Progress across the demos

The project has reached a critical stage, moving from design to implementation across all six sites. Here is a summary of the real-world progress and innovative technologies being deployed in key demonstrators.

Germany

Demonstrating how a smart industrial/commercial district can actively stabilise the grid using batteries and EV charging, driven by market price response with bidirectional EV charging integrated with a real-time controller for frequency containment.

Spain

Establishing a rural renewable energy community where shared solar power is exchanged to reduce energy poverty and strengthen village independence with blockchain for transparent energy verification and AI-powered optimisation to manage shared solar and battery assets.

Portugal

Transforming a large shopping mall (Palácio do Gelo) into a smart energy hub using ten years of data and AI to manage complex multi-energy systems with AI-based optimisation and forecasting combined with giant ice storage from the ice rink to manage cooling loads and save energy.

Belgium

Pairing smart thermal energy processing with seasonal storage using an innovative Carnot battery and underground reservoirs with power-to-heat/heat-to-power testing efficient energy conversion and thermal storage in a closed-loop system.

Croatia

Advancing grid stability on the island of Krk, a holiday destination with large seasonal demand variations, through advanced metering and grid monitoring with AMI and a data processing hub to understand asset impact and ensure energy transition benefits reach all community members.

Luxembourg

Transforming an industrial district into a resilient living space by implementing advanced storage and charging infrastructure with a multiport power processing hub (integrating 1st and 2nd life batteries and fast chargers) and a cloud-based operational framework for intelligence.

These demonstrators collectively prove that the core WeForming framework is scalable, adaptable and ready for deployment across different European markets.

Conclusion

The work across the six WeForming demonstrators showcases tangible progress towards integrating buildings into a flexible, resilient and decarbonised energy system.

By focusing on market integration and technological interoperability, WeForming is creating new value streams and accelerating Europe's shift towards a climate-neutral built environment.

To learn more about the technical achievements and future milestones, visit the WeForming website.

This article was authored by Michalis Vasilakis and Sandra Grano de Oro Tunon from F6S and Johannes Galenzowski and Erfan Tajalli-Ardekani from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.