AI Platform Aims to Enable Energy Sharing in Industry

High energy prices, unstable grids, and the pressure to decarbonize are putting manufacturing companies under increasing strain—including in the plastics industry, where energy-intensive processes such as extrusion, injection molding, and pelletizing account for a significant portion of operating costs. Traditional energy systems are often unable to meet these demands: They are rigid in design and generally make insufficient use of renewable energy sources.

This is precisely where the European research project FlexBit comes in, which is coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operations and Automation IFF. At the heart of the project is a digital platform that uses artificial intelligence to automate and optimize the management of modern energy storage systems. These include technologies such as HT-PEM fuel cells and vehicle-to-grid systems, which can feed stored energy back into the grid as needed. The concept is complemented by blockchain applications designed to document energy exchanges within so-called energy communities—locally networked generators and consumers—in a transparent and traceable manner.

The project is receiving a boost from legislation: With the new Section 42c of the Energy Industry Act, energy sharing will become operational in Germany as of June 1, 2026. This provides, for the first time, a regulatory framework that enables the shared use of renewable energy, including for industrial consortia.

The Industrial Energy Community in Magdeburg, in which the companies Arte Möbel and Aue Bestattungen are participating, serves as a real-world laboratory. Both companies already generate electricity using photovoltaic systems and are expected to benefit from new energy-sharing models in the future. At Arte Möbel, production processes, compressed air compressors, battery storage systems, and charging infrastructure for electric vehicles—among other things—are integrated into the energy management system; these are system components that are also structurally found in many plastics manufacturing facilities. At Aue Bestattungen, battery storage systems, refrigeration systems, and charging points are at the heart of the digital control system.

Another focus of the project is on blockchain-based “Digital Trust” solutions, which are designed to document energy flows in a tamper-proof manner and make the sustainability of energy flows more traceable. Project coordinator Dr. Pio Alessandro Lombardi of Fraunhofer IFF emphasizes that the new legislation, for the first time, creates concrete opportunities for companies that want to actively contribute to the energy transition while simultaneously tapping into the economic potential of energy-sharing models.

For the plastics industry—which is already grappling with issues such as capacity utilization, rising energy costs, and regulatory pressure—FlexBit thus provides a practical example of how energy management can be more closely integrated into the production environment in the future. The control and trust mechanisms developed in the project are intended to serve as the foundation for further applications in the field of automated manufacturing.

FlexBit is funded as part of the Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETPartnership), co-financed by the European Commission (Grant Agreement No. 101069750) and other participating funding organizations. The project will run for 30 months.