HERON Participation on Research Programs | HERON

HERON proudly participates in the LiveBetter project—an innovative initiative that brings together insights from 24 EU-funded projects to create a dynamic digital marketplace for smart building services and products. At the heart of the project is the creation of a Standardized Common European Digital Buildings Hub, designed to ensure high-quality data sharing and interoperability across the building sector.

This advanced platform will feature 15 AI-driven services ready for market deployment, covering everything from digital building inspections to renovation planning and flexible energy management. The Hub will support secure data access and enable cutting-edge functionalities such as digital twin-based performance and comfort optimization, as well as demand response (DR)-ready building solutions.

As part of the project, HERON will contribute its expertise by delivering flexibility and residential DR services close to market readiness, developing the EnergiQ Lab mobile app, and leading the Business Model Work Package, helping to define sustainable pathways for the adoption of these innovative services.

HERON is an active partner in INSIEME, a forward-looking European project focused on enhancing data sharing, interoperability, and innovation within the energy sector. Building on the foundations of previous initiatives—such as the Energy Data Space Cluster Projects—INSIEME aims to create a federated data architecture that connects and integrates existing energy data platforms across Europe.

Within the Greek Data and Business Model Cluster, HERON will play a key role in i) establishing a pan-European network of energy companies to explore and promote AI-driven applications for smarter, more efficient energy systems and ii) developing and piloting commercial services that enable Building Management Systems (BMS) to participate in advanced energy trading schemes, unlocking new opportunities for value and flexibility in the energy market.  Through INSIEME, HERON continues to support the digital transformation of the energy landscape—driving innovation, enabling smarter infrastructure, and fostering collaboration across Europe.

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HERON proudly contributes to a pioneering initiative that positions select Energy Communities (ECs) in Turkey, Greece, and Portugal as “Excellence Hubs”—models of innovation, sustainability, and social impact in the energy transition.

In the Greek pilot, HERON collaborates with Electra Energy Cooperative, the Municipalities of Thermaikos and Thermi, and the Regional Development Fund of Central Macedonia to support and scale community-driven energy solutions.

As part of its role in the project, HERON will design advanced services that leverage metered data to enable real-time coordination between renewable energy production from the ECs and the consumption patterns of their members. In parallel, HERON will develop business models to support the commercial maturation of ECs, facilitating their evolution and capacity to serve a broader base of consumers. Additionally, HERON will take on an advisory role, promoting partnerships between industry and academia to encourage innovation and long-term collaboration in the energy sector.  Through this initiative, HERON reinforces its commitment to empowering local communities and driving a just, inclusive, and intelligent energy transition.

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HERON participates in the ODEON project, a cutting-edge European initiative that brings together citizens, prosumers, and local energy communities (LECs) to form an inclusive, data-driven ecosystem. The project’s goal is to foster collective intelligence and active stakeholder engagement across the entire energy data value chain—supporting the decarbonisation and resilience of Europe’s energy system.

At the heart of the initiative is the development of the "ODEON Cloud-Edge" platform—a next-generation data intelligence infrastructure that will deliver secure, high-performance data management, processing, sharing, and analytics services to all participants. This platform will enable the energy system to operate reliably and flexibly, even under conditions of high renewable energy integration and growing demands for distributed flexibility.

Within ODEON, HERON focuses on integrating distributed energy resources, enhancing local energy management, and facilitating seamless coordination between end-users and distribution networks. These actions are key to maintaining grid stability, enabling active participation in energy markets, and empowering local energy communities to play a central role in the energy transition.

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HERON takes part in SCO2OP-TES, a cutting-edge project that aims to design and validate the next generation of Power-to-Heat-to-Power (P2H2P) energy storage systems, based on supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) technologies. This breakthrough approach enables long-duration, high-capacity energy storage, providing a key solution for the increased integration of renewable energy into the European power grid.

Beyond supporting renewables, the SCO2OP-TES solution enhances the operational flexibility of fossil-fueled power plants and facilitates the smooth integration of industrial loads into the grid. Unlike conventional batteries or hydrogen-based systems, this rotating-machine-based storage technology offers greater grid stability, lower environmental impact, and a more sustainable, scalable alternative for Europe’s evolving energy needs.

HERON contributes by hosting a Replication Site at its Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) Plant, where the economic viability of the SCO2OP-TES system—deployed in Italy’s Tirreno Power 800 MW CCGT plant—is evaluated under real market conditions.

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HERON participates in DEDALUS, an innovative project that places residential consumers at the center of the energy transition by promoting flexible, technology-enabled energy management solutions. The project combines advanced ICT tools with social insights, behavioral engagement, sharing economy principles, and novel business and governance models to support consumer participation in Demand Response (DR) schemes.

DEDALUS addresses both single-energy systems (electricity or heat) and multi-energy environments (electricity, heat, and natural gas), applying its approach at both building and district level.

HERON leads one of the project’s pilots, focusing on delivering multi-value, implicit and explicit DR services by harnessing the flexibility of residential electricity and gas users. Through smart management of HVAC systems and household appliances, the pilot aims to reduce carbon emissions by synchronizing energy use with renewable energy production.

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HERON contributes to the InEExS project, which promotes the development and implementation of cross-sectoral smart energy services that span multiple energy carriers. The project aims to enable the tokenization of energy-saving data on a public infrastructure, and to design innovative business models and contractual frameworks that support the uptake of such services and technologies.

InEExS integrates a wide portfolio of sustainable energy solutions, including renewables (RES), electric vehicles (EVs), heat pumps, IoT-enabled controls, and various energy efficiency (EE) measures, facilitating their combined deployment across residential and commercial settings.

Within the project, HERON offers a smart heating solution to residential pilot users, helping them reduce natural gas consumption for space heating without compromising comfort. This solution provides tangible benefits for households aiming to lower energy costs, while also supporting energy suppliers in meeting their Energy Efficiency Obligations (EEOs).

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HERON participated in DigiBUILD, a pioneering project that developed an open, interoperable, cloud-based toolbox to transform traditionally isolated buildings into digital, interconnected, and smarter environments. This toolbox supports key decision-making processes such as performance monitoring and assessment, infrastructure planning, policy development, and investment risk mitigation, advancing Europe’s goal of achieving a climate-neutral building stock by 2050.

DigiBUILD leveraged AI-driven data analytics and Digital Building Twins built on high-quality data to foster transparency, trust, and efficient information sharing across the construction and built environment sectors.

Within this framework, HERON’s pilot project, ‘Carbon ~Free Buildings with Flexible Assets’, developed an Energy Metering platform that aggregates consumption data from multi-dwelling buildings. This platform empowers residents to shift energy-intensive activities, such as electric vehicle (EV) charging, to periods of high renewable energy generation, optimizing energy use and supporting grid stability.

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The BIGG project demonstrated the potential of big data technologies and advanced analytics to manage the entire life cycle of over 4,000 buildings across six large-scale pilot sites. The project focused on four key areas: building performance monitoring, regulatory support, investment facilitation in energy efficiency, and energy grid management.

Through BIGG, HERON launched a smart metering platform that monitors real-time energy consumption and acts as a potential Demand Response Aggregator. This platform empowers residential consumers with the tools to actively track their electricity use and receive personalized, real-time recommendations for load shifting based on environmental factors and electricity market conditions.

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I-NERGY project aimed to reshape the energy sector value chain towards better business and operational performance, increased environmental sustainability, and social impact. It promoted the use of AI through an open, modular framework supporting AI-on-Demand via Energy Analytics Applications and Digital Twins. Leveraging advanced AI, IoT, semantics, federated learning, and analytics tools, the project enabled interoperable, regulation-compliant, cross-sector data handling.

As a partner, HERON focused on improving user experience by using novel AI tools to support electric vehicle (EV) charging decision making, offering recommendations based on EV usage and charging patterns, market and system CO₂ conditions, and navigate between private contracts and public charging offers.

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The aim of the iFLEX project was to incentivize energy consumers to participate in demand response programs, adjusting their energy consumption in response to price signals and/or other incentives.  To enable user participation the project developed the iFLEX Assistant, an AI agent that handles the complexity of the system interactions, optimizes comfort, energy cost and environmental footprint, whereas on the same time allows the consumer to maintain full control of flexibility and desired comfort levels.

Heron focused on aggregating household consumption flexibility to detect and reduce supply-demand imbalances, while also providing this flexibility as a balancing service in the wholesale electricity market.  Furthermore, HERON developed the EnergiQ Lab mobile application, in which the iFLEX Assistant was integrated.

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HEART aimed to implement solutions based on state-of-the-art technologies that combine progresses in the area of "smart" devices with big data and the Internet of Things, by the use of cutting-edge data analysis algorithms running locally in the device, minimizing in this way operating costs and improving users’ experience.  The subject of interest was the in-depth understanding of energy consumption in residential environments and either limiting it for the benefit of the tenant or designing services on top of this information for the benefit of energy retailers.

HERON acted as the pilot of the project, offering consumption datasets of 33 houses equipped with HEART’s IoT devices.

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DECIDE aimed to enhance the understanding of how energy communities and energy efficiency services are created and managed. The initiative identified the most effective communication strategies and interaction methods to foster participation in energy communities, tailored to specific individuals and groups. In addition, it aimed to test and disseminate knowledge through pilot projects implemented across Europe.

HERON’s Pilot included not only the residential pilots but also an SME pilot, Living Yard, which consists of two Short & Medium-term complexes of serviced apartments for digital nomads.  Through this project HERON upgraded the existing energy metering platform so us to accommodate the aggregated participation of more than one users, leading the way to the management of Energy Communities in the future.

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The scope of the InterConnect project was the development and demonstration of advanced solutions for the digitalization of buildings, homes, and electricity networks based on an Internet of Things (IoT) architecture. Smart energy management solutions were tested through pilot activities in Portugal, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, and France, whereas by including technologies such as AI, Blockchain, Cloud and Big Data, interoperability between equipment, systems and privacy/cybersecurity of user data was achieved.

HERON was part of the Greek pilot, aiming to offer residential consumers the opportunity to participate in the demonstration of Demand-Side Flexibility services and IoT-assisted energy management, receive energy demand predictions and recommendations through mobile apps, understand their energy consumption behavior and assess the solution/ application.

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