Implementing EU building, energy andmarket rules for building-level flexibility: insights from six pilot contexts

Extended abstract 2-297-26

Energy flexibility from buildings is increasingly recognised as (i) a relevant demand-side resource for integrating renewable electricity and supporting a decarbonised energy system (EPaC 2024a; EC2025a; IEA 2023) and (II) a cost-effective complement to storage and network reinforcement where flexibility helps optimise existing infrastructure and reduce system costs (EC 2025a; EC2025b), yet it remains difficult to operationalise because the underlying process is complex. Using flexibility from buildings as an advantage for the energy system depends on the tight orchestration of multiple elements in near-real-time windows: building and control technologies, data and information flows, user response, and price and weather signals and energy systems requirements. These elements must be framed by workable regulatory obligations, consumer protection, and remuneration and benefit-allocation arrangements.

Methodologically, the analysis details provision-by-provision and then moves to interpreting them through a 5-step process lens to make the regulatory landscape easier to grasp for energy-policy and energy-efficiency audiences and to clarify where provisions support readiness, operability and value capture. The review is guided by three questions: where national implementation currently stands; what implementation practices may be transferable; and what barriers still require addressing.

Preliminary findings suggest that implementation is uneven across countries and across the different parts of the flexibility process. Some national frameworks show promising elements, such as clearer arrangements for energy sharing, stronger data access provisions, or early approaches to integrating demand-side flexibility into planning and market participation. However, good practices are often partial. A country may have relevant market-access provisions but weaker building-readiness mechanisms; another may have promising smart-building or energy-community arrangements but limited clarity on how flexibility is activated, aggregated or rewarded in practice.

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