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Demflex

Overview

DEMFLEX is a two-year international innovation project that will design, build and test new approaches for flexible and resilient local energy systems. The project focuses on hybrid DC and AC microgrids, advanced community energy management and multi-agent reinforcement learning to help households use more of their locally generated renewable energy, reduce peak demand and share energy across their community.

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Two demonstration sites in the United Kingdom and Portugal will showcase how local energy communities can coordinate their assets to cut costs, unlock flexibility and support a more stable electricity grid. DEMFLEX will also explore standards, market mechanisms and regulatory pathways to enable replication across Europe.

Objectives

DEMFLEX aims to:

  • Increase the collective self-consumption of renewable energy within local communities.

  • Reduce grid stress by lowering peak loads and providing community-based flexibility.

  • Demonstrate the safe and effective operation of hybrid DC and AC microgrids.

  • Enable community-level energy sharing using the Cleanwatts Renewable Energy Community platform.

  • Use multi-agent reinforcement learning to optimise energy flows and improve decision-making.

  • Provide evidence that supports policy development, standardisation and commercial scaling.

By the end of the project, DEMFLEX expects to deliver measurable bill savings for households, reduce peak demand on local feeders and demonstrate how community-scale flexibility can support distribution network operators and improve power quality.

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Pilot Demonstrations

Corby, United Kingdom

A new four-storey apartment building with 24 individual units, developed by Positive Places, will be connected using the Entrust Smart Home Microgrid system. Each home includes solar PV, a battery and the ability to operate in both AC and DC modes. The pilot will test coordinated control, energy sharing and community-scale flexibility in a real neighbourhood setting.

 

Cleanwatts Living Lab, Portugal

Over 40 homes within Cleanwatts’ Living Lab will integrate Entrust microgrid technologies with the Cleanwatts Renewable Energy Community (REC) platform. This pilot will explore peer-to-peer energy sharing, community optimisation and new market participation opportunities, including flexibility and balancing services.​

​Innovation Highlights

Hybrid DC and AC Smart Home Microgrid

Entrust Microgrid’s architecture combines centralised and decentralised control, enabling each home to switch between AC and DC operation. This reduces conversion losses, improves efficiency and increases the value of local renewable energy.

Community Energy Management System

A cloud-based Community EMS (CEMS) coordinates all homes in each pilot site. It manages household assets, optimises local supply and demand, and handles interactions with the wider electricity grid.

Renewable Energy Community and Energy Sharing

The Cleanwatts REC platform will enable coordinated sharing of surplus solar generation across participating households. This supports higher self-consumption and reduces curtailment, especially during periods of high PV output.

Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

The University of Liverpool will develop and test multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) techniques to forecast, optimise and coordinate distributed energy assets. This will demonstrate how artificial intelligence can manage complex energy communities in practice.

Net Zero-Ready Community Design

The UK pilot features highly efficient homes built to modern construction standards. Combined with smart optimisation and local flexibility, the pilot will provide real-world evidence on achieving Net Zero community operation.​

Consortium and Funding

DEMFLEX is delivered by an international consortium of industry, academic and community partners:

  • Entrust Microgrid (Portugal)
    Lead developer of the Smart Home Microgrid, DC/AC hybrid architecture and community EMS.

  • Cleanwatts Digital (Portugal)
    Provider of the REC platform and coordinator of the Living Lab demonstration.

  • Positive Places / Electric Corby CIC (United Kingdom)
    Lead for the UK pilot site, community engagement, regulatory insights and exploitation planning.

  • ISEP – Institute of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto (Portugal)
    Research partner for modelling, simulation and optimisation of the hybrid microgrid architecture.

  • University of Liverpool (United Kingdom)
    Responsible for data science, forecasting and multi-agent reinforcement learning.

The project is funded through the Eurogia2030 cluster under the Eureka framework, with national support from Innovate UK, Portugal’s ANI and relevant Portuguese funding channels.

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