The Italian project for climate control systems supporting energy flexibility
Driving the energy transition through smart flexibility
ClimaFlex is the project addressing the technical and regulatory barriers that prevent HVAC systems from participating in flexibility markets.
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Minimum modulation for fine load control
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Estimated new jobs in the sector
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Market potential for flexibility services by 2030
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From laboratory validation to real-environment demonstration
The Project
Launched in September 2025, ClimaFlex is an initiative funded by MASE and the European Union’s NextGenerationEU programme, aiming to make heat pumps smart, flexible, and integrated into the national energy system.
The goal is to increase the attractiveness of heat pumps by reducing the payback period by approximately one year.
How?
ClimaFlex Partners
The project brings together four excellent partners:
R2M Solution Srl is a consulting and technological innovation company active in the fields of energy, sustainability, and digitalisation of the built environment, with offices in Italy, Spain, and France. Since 2012, it has participated in over 140 European projects on digital and energy transition. Within ClimaFlex, R2M develops a digital platform for energy flexibility management, designs innovative business models, and leads communication and dissemination activities, leveraging a broad European network of partners, clusters, and technical platforms to maximise impact and replicability of results.
R2M Solution 
The University of Padua is one of Italy’s most prestigious universities and among the oldest in the world. The Department of Industrial Engineering conducts advanced research across all areas of industrial engineering, promoting international cooperation and technology transfer. Within it, the Building Energy Technology Assessment Lab (BETALab) focuses on building physics, HVAC system efficiency, and renewable energy integration, studying solutions from single-building to urban scale. In ClimaFlex, BETALab develops advanced control logics for system management and flexibility assessment of the building-system interaction. It also manages the pilot testing at the UNIZEB facility and is responsible for the analysis, interpretation, and scientific dissemination of project results.
Università degli Studi di Padova 
MIPU is an Italian industrial technology and artificial intelligence company, active in over 1,000 plants across 30 countries, with offices in Spain and Romania. It develops full-stack solutions for energy flexibility, predictive maintenance, EMS/VPP, and process optimisation. It has contributed to European projects such as PLATOON and I-NERGY, developing advanced AI models for energy forecasting and asset management. MIPU also combines scientific research with training through the MIPU Predictive School, promoting interoperable and scalable digital innovation in the industrial sector.
MIPU 
HIREF S.p.A. has been operating since 2001 in the HVACR sector, offering a wide range of solutions including chillers, heat pumps, geothermal systems, precision air conditioning, and commercial refrigeration. The group’s R&D centre collaborates with the University of Padua on innovative refrigerants and high-efficiency technologies. Within ClimaFlex, HIREF supplies and develops refrigeration system prototypes, handling techno-economic analysis, thermodynamic and electrical design, control software, production, and both laboratory and field testing, including implementation at its own demo site.
HiRef 