THE FLEX4FACT NATIONAL FORUM AND ITALIAN SHOWCASE EVENT
September 30th, 2025 – Blue District, Genova (Italy) – On September 30th, Genova hosted the Flex4Fact National Forum on Flexibility and Demand Response in the Energy Domain, an event that brought together leading experts, public authorities, and industry representatives to discuss how energy flexibility can drive sustainability, innovation, and resilience across territories and industrial networks.
Organized by START4.0, the event marked a significant milestone for Italy’s participation in the Flex4Fact project, gathering perspectives from across the country and bringing together representatives from cross-sector industries: energy, manufacturing, digital technologies, and public administration.
It served as a national platform for dialogue on how energy flexibility can empower sustainable industrial transformation, while also showcasing the results of the Italian use case led by SEAC SUB, where innovative digital solutions for energy monitoring and flexible demand management are being tested in real operational environments. This convergence of experiences from different regions and sectors highlighted Italy’s growing role within the European network of innovation hubs working toward a more resilient, decarbonized, and data-driven energy ecosystem.
From European Vision to National and local Implementation
The forum opened with institutional greetings from Paola Girdinio (President at START4.0), Alessio Piana (Regional Minister for Economic Development, Industry, Trade, Handicraft, Research and Technological Innovation, Energy, Ports and Logistics within Regione Liguria), Marco Roggerone (President of the Energy Resources Section, Confindustria Genova), and Silvia Pericu (Councilor for Environment, Waste Management, Sustainability and Circular Economy of the Municipality of Genoa), who underlined the importance of collaboration between research, industry, and local government in advancing energy innovation.
The first session, “The Flex4Fact Project: From the EU Framework to the National Use Case,” featured insights from Chiara Caccamo (SINTEF), Giovanni Nieddu (STAM), and Francesco Gambino (SEACSUB). The Project Technical coordinator of Flex4Fact offered a forward-looking reflection on the European vision for industrial sustainability and digital transformation, drawing a direct line between the project’s achievements and the broader priorities being shaped for Framework Programme 10 (FP10).
Her presentation underscored how energy flexibility is becoming foundational element of Europe’s industrial strategy — key enablers not only for decarbonization, but also for technological sovereignty and strategic resilience in a global market increasingly defined by energy and supply constraints.
Rather than focusing solely on project metrics, Caccamo invited the audience to view Flex4Fact as a living testbed of what Europe aims to achieve in its next research and innovation cycle: a seamless integration of industrial ecosystems, digital infrastructures, and policy frameworks that make green growth both competitive and inclusive.
Her remarks captured the essence of FP10’s ambition (building a Europe that leads the twin green and digital transitions not through isolated excellence, but through interconnected, data-driven collaboration across borders and sectors).
Building on this European perspective, Giovanni Nieddu (STAM) and Francesco Gambino (SEAC SUB) brought the discussion down to the operational level, showcasing the concrete results achieved within the Italian use case at SEAC SUB’s production site.
Their presentation highlighted how the introduction of flexible energy management systems has significantly improved load optimization and energy absorption, dynamically aligning consumption with local photovoltaic production while maintaining the plant’s strict standards for quality, reliability, and production continuity.
SEAC SUB’s story carries a deeper meaning: a company that has courageously reversed delocalization, bringing all its manufacturing back to Italy, and, by extension, to Europe. This decision represents not only a business choice but also a statement of industrial responsibility, reaffirming that competitiveness, sustainability, and technological excellence can and must coexist within Europe’s industrial future.
In this sense, the Italian pilot stands as a small yet tangible contribution to strengthening the European Union’s competitiveness, energy autonomy, and capacity for innovation at the dawn of FP10.
Flexibility for a Sustainable and Resilient Energy Future
Moderated by Alice Lupinacci (START4.0), the roundtable “Industry and Networks in Transition” offered an insightful cross-sector dialogue on how flexibility is reshaping the energy landscape, not just as a technical enabler, but as a strategic driver for sustainability, competitiveness, and innovation.
Representing different perspectives along the energy value chain, Domenico Cimmino (ENI Plenitude), Enrico Pochettino (IREN), Matteo Mangini (DGS), and Daniela Gentile (Ansaldo Nucleare) discussed how their organizations are translating the concept of flexibility into concrete projects, technologies, and market strategies.
Domenico Cimmino highlighted ENI Plenitude’s commitment to the Flex4Fact initiative, explaining how the company is working to integrate flexibility within power networks as a lever for digital innovation and efficiency in the Italian energy market. He emphasized that demand-side flexibility and smart grid interoperability are becoming central to the evolution of next-generation energy services, a transition already being tested in experimental projects such as RomeFlex and MindFlex, where ENI Plenitude plays a pioneering role.
Daniela Gentile, CEO of Ansaldo Nucleare, provided a broader European perspective, outlining how the continent is reorganizing its industrial and regulatory framework to support the development of new nuclear energy technologies as part of the decarbonized power mix. She stressed that for Ansaldo Nucleare, flexibility is not only a challenge but a key design principle for future generation systems, a necessary condition to ensure grid stability in a renewables-dominated context.
Matteo Mangini, from DGS, offered the viewpoint of a technological enabler, illustrating how digital transformation partners are helping industries, beyond traditional TSO/DSO roles, to embrace energy flexibility through smart data management, automation, and predictive analytics. He underlined that co-financed R&D projects are essential to drive innovation in uncertain market conditions, allowing companies to test scalable solutions while sharing investment risks.
From the utility perspective, Enrico Pochettino (IREN) described how the group is experimenting with load modulation and demand response strategies across industrial and domestic users, recognizing flexibility as a crucial tool for balancing distributed generation and consumption. He stressed that IREN’s approach is increasingly integrated, spanning industry, mobility, and residential sectors, with the goal of building a resilient and adaptive energy ecosystem.
The session concluded with a rapid-fire question to all speakers: “Which emerging technology trend should be monitored most closely?”
Their answers, from artificial intelligence and digital twins, to predictive maintenance, blockchain for energy trading, and advanced data platforms, reflected a shared awareness that the real game-changer will not be a single innovation, but the ability to interconnect them seamlessly.
Together, these contributions painted a vivid picture of how Italian and European industries are preparing for a more dynamic, digital, and decarbonized energy future, one in which flexibility is the cornerstone of both operational excellence and environmental responsibility.
Connecting Local Energy Communities: Governance, Awareness, and Innovation
The second panel “Connecting Energy Communities for a sustainable Future of the territories” shifted the focus from industrial systems to territorial ecosystems, exploring the evolving landscape of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) across Italy. Moderated by Giacomo Pepe Benedetti (START4.0), the session brought together an exceptional range of voices (from metropolitan cities to small rural municipalities) to reflect on how flexibility can empower local development and social cohesion.
The discussion opened with Prof. Sergio Olivero (Energy Center – Politecnico di Torino), who connected the dots between policy, governance, and technological innovation. He stressed that the true potential of energy communities lies not only in energy sharing, but in their ability to redistribute value across territories, thus enabling citizens and enterprises to become active participants in the energy transition. He also framed the discussion with a bold, transnational perspective presenting the first cross-border REC project currently being structured between Italy, France, and Monaco: an initiative that, under Italian RECs regulation, aims to integrate foreign partners and promote aggregated community models across national borders. Olivero underscored how the regulatory frameworks (e.g. RED II, national transpositions) are being interpreted to enable such boundary-spanning communities, positioning the REC as a fertile ground for European integration in energy policy. From that foundation, Olivero argued, Italy’s RECs ecosystem can evolve not just locally but in alignment with pan-European goals: integrated energy markets, community networks crossing jurisdictional lines, and shared innovation in governance and flexibility.
From Turin to Genoa, Stefania Manca (Sustainability & Resilience Manager, Municipality of Genova) illustrated how a city historically shaped by physical and industrial constraints is leveraging flexibility and community-based approaches to bridge large-scale infrastructures with local initiatives. Genoa’s strategy, she explained, is to align CER development with its broader urban sustainability and digital transformation agenda, ensuring that innovation benefits both citizens and businesses.
Daniele Cencioni (Green Helpdesk Manager, Metropolitan City and Municipality of Bologna) offered a pragmatic industrial viewpoint, emphasizing that while many companies are now aware of the potential of CERs, there is still a gap in understanding their long-term economic and strategic value. He underlined the importance of creating networks of trust and collaboration that make the energy transition feasible even for SMEs — demonstrating that the real benefit of a CER goes beyond installing photovoltaics, resting instead on shared planning and mutual support among enterprises.
From urban to rural contexts, Cristina Tedde (Municipality of Codrongianos and Municipality of Alà dei Sardi) provided a heartfelt testimony on the social dimension of energy communities in small municipalities facing depopulation. In these territories, CERs are not merely technical constructs but social infrastructures capable of revitalizing local identity, attracting youth initiatives, and fostering new forms of economic participation. She also presented the experience of the “LA tua CER” Foundation, an initiative launched in Sardinia and now expanding to other Italian regions.
The foundation acts as a participatory entity designed to promote, support, and manage Renewable Energy Communities across the national territory. Its model provides a legal and organizational framework that simplifies administrative procedures while safeguarding the autonomy of local communities. As Tedde explained, the foundation serves as a common governance structure bringing together prosumers, citizens, and public authorities. By handling the bureaucratic and regulatory aspects, it enables municipalities and local groups to focus on the social and economic value creation of their energy projects, ensuring that the benefits of shared renewable production can be distributed fairly and sustainably.
Finally, Silvia Moggia (IRE Liguria) described the role of the Regional Energy Agency in supporting municipalities through regulatory guidance, capacity-building, and governance tools that enable scalable and replicable CER models. Her intervention reinforced the idea that regions act as connective hubs between local authorities, citizens, and industry ensuring that the national and EU funding frameworks effectively translate into local impact.
The discussion concluded with a shared reflection: while technology is no longer the main obstacle, cultural awareness, governance models, and administrative coordination remain the key challenges ahead. Each speaker pointed to the same direction, building a flexible, inclusive, and cooperative energy transition where diversity of approaches becomes a national strength.
The panel’s outcomes reaffirmed that energy communities represent one of the most human expressions of flexibility, a tangible link between citizens and systems, between data and trust, between Europe’s green ambitions and the everyday life of its territories.
In her closing remarks, Chiara Caccamo emphasized how the day’s discussions had underscored the fundamental importance of energy and technological agnosticism as cornerstones of genuine, sustainable innovation. She highlighted that true progress depends on maintaining flexibility, avoiding rigid adherence to specific technologies, energy sources, or digital platforms, so that systems can evolve responsibly and effectively in the face of rapid change.
Caccamo noted that the event had succeeded in communicating these and other essential messages for fostering practical and sustainable innovation across productive ecosystems. Its value, she underlined, lies not only in its direct contribution to the Flex4Fact initiative, but also in its capacity to stimulate a broader, forward-looking dialogue on the future of digital transformation and sustainability. As she concluded, the end of the Flex4Fact project should not be seen as a closure, but rather as a springboard for new conversations, collaborations, and visions aimed at shaping the next generation of resilient, data-driven, and adaptive production systems.
