Flexibility is a trending topic in current discussions on energy communities. However, methods for managing energy flexibility remain underexplored. Interactions between actors within the energy community ecosystem are complex, particularly when it comes to defining contractual agreements, penalties, and remuneration schemes. There is a clear need for advanced management solutions that ensure effective stakeholder participation while achieving optimal outcomes, such as profit maximisation or cost minimisation. One of the key challenges is the lack of clear models for coordination, control, and fair remuneration among stakeholders. Addressing this requires tailored approaches that respond to both operational and contractual complexity. A critical first step is the definition of representative use cases, which form the foundation for developing optimised control strategies and innovative contractual frameworks.

Recent work has already yielded valuable insights, laying the groundwork for more effective flexibility integration. Several EU projects have actively addressed this and related challenges through diverse approaches. This workshop showcased their demonstrated solutions, each offering concrete insights into how flexibility can be effectively managed within energy communities. The discussion addressed the following three pillars:

Pillar 1: Operational Complexity – Optimising Distributed Energy Assets and Flexibility Activation
How did your project address the technical challenges of managing distributed energy resources, developing optimisation strategies, or activating flexibility services?

Pillar 2: Governance and Contractual Innovation – Fair Stakeholder Agreements, Incentives, and Market Participation
How did you tackle contractual frameworks, remuneration schemes, or governance models that ensured fairness and encouraged stakeholder engagement?

Pillar 3: Enabling Digital and Physical Infrastructure – Hardware and Software for Flexible Deployment
Which digital tools, software platforms, hardware solutions, or interfaces did your project develop or validate to enable flexibility in practice?