FLEX4FACT Final Results: Digital Twins for a Decarbonised Future
Read all A.SPIRE’s Success Stories here.
A Promising P4Planet Initiative
Featured as a Success Story in August 2024, the FLEX4FACT project (full title Industrial Cluster FLEXibility platform for sustainable FACTories to reduce CO2 emissions and to enable the Energy Transition) will end on 30 November 2025, after successfully completing 42 months (June 2022–November 2025).
An Innovation Action (IA), FLEX4FACT was funded by Horizon Europe, under a Processes4Planet call (HORIZON-CL4-2021-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-21 - Design and optimisation of energy flexible industrial processes (Processes4Planet Partnership) and aimed to enhance the flexibility of industrial sites and processes through digitalisation, automation, and smart control systems.
Demonstrating Impact Through Five Industrial Pilots
In August 2024, the project was already showing promising progress towards achieving its ambitious goals. Now, the project team informed us that “all original project objectives were fully or substantially achieved,” and the five pilots and demonstrators planned reached operational status. Furthermore, FLEX4FACT achieved development, validation, and integration of digital twins, advanced scheduling algorithms, and two flagship platforms: the Energy-Flex Production Scheduling Platform (EFPSP) and the Industrial Cluster Flexibility Platform (ICFP). The project demonstrated, in five industrial pilots, that digital twins, advanced scheduling, and cluster coordination can deliver double-digit reductions in energy costs and CO₂ emissions, while opening new revenue streams from flexibility markets. The EEFPSP is market-ready and the ICFP is almost market-ready, with proven scalability, interoperability, and replicability across sectors.
Success Story
Asked about the major achievement of FLEX4FACT, the project team pointed to “the creation and validation of a modular, scalable digital ecosystem that enables energy-intensive industries to optimise production scheduling, integrate renewables, and monetise flexibility at both the factory and cluster levels.”
All platforms and tools developed reached TRL 7, validated in operational environments, and are ready for commercial deployment.
The implementation of the EFPSP translated into up to 22.5% energy cost reduction, 17% energy reduction and 64% increase in renewable share, and 8.2% CO₂ reduction (CELSA).
In terms of flexibility monetisation, trading flexibility in local and external markets via ICFP, clusters achieved up to 500EUR per day in flexibility revenues and optimised battery sizing.
All pilots validated digital twins for core processes, enabling real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and scenario analysis.
ICFP enabled aggregation of flexibility across sites, reducing costs and emissions at the cluster level.
Exploitation and Next Steps
The EFPSP (main digital platform) follows a SaaS business model with subscription, enterprise licensing and service revenues, supported by a developing collaboration agreement between WePlus and SPS to ensure continued development, support and commercial scaling.
The EFPSP is ready for wider. The F4F-OM device from Eni Plenitude has completed prototyping, is entering industrial production, and enables secure, near-real-time metering and blockchain-based traceability, validated at SEAC.
The ICFP platform can be replicated within one to three weeks per cluster, uses subscription and setup fees with value-based pricing for advanced modules, and targets a European market expected to exceed €5 billion by 2030.
Collaboration among Eni Plenitude, WePlus, SPS, UPC, HS Albsig and others will continue to support commercialisation and new projects within the FLEX4FACT ecosystem.
In a Nutshell
The project team concluded that FLEX4FACT stands as a European success story in digital, flexible, and sustainable manufacturing. Its validated platforms, business models, and industrial partnerships provide a robust foundation for scaling up industrial flexibility, delivering economic, environmental, and societal value in line with EU ambitions. The next phase will see commercial exploitation, further research, and continued collaboration—anchored by the EFPSP, ICFP, and the innovative F4F-OM device.
A Strong Contribution to Processes4Planet
A.SPIRE welcomes the achievements of FLEX4FACT as a substantial contribution to the Processes4Planet Partnership. The project’s outcomes advance the vision of the Partnership’s Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda towards climate neutrality, competitiveness and circularity in European process industries. The association considers the project a compelling example of how collaborative innovation can strengthen Europe’s resilience and accelerate the transition to a sustainable, future-proof energy-intensive industry.
Visit the FLEX4FACT website.
For more information about A.SPIRE, the Processes4Planet Partnership, and the Success Stories, contact the team.
