TRINEFLEX is an innovation action project co-funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme, focused on accelerating the transition of energy-intensive industries towards more flexible, efficient and sustainable operations.
The project addresses one of the key challenges of Europe’s energy transition: how to decarbonise industrial sectors that depend on continuous production processes and high energy consumption while maintaining competitiveness and operational reliability.
To achieve this, TRINEFLEX develops and demonstrates an integrated transformation toolkit that combines energy flexibility, process flexibility and feedstock flexibility.
The toolkit is designed to support industries throughout their digital transformation journey using advanced data acquisition, Big Data infrastructures, process analysis, digital twins and intelligent decision-support systems under an “X-as-a-Service” approach.
A distinctive feature of TRINEFLEX is its validation across five real industrial demonstration sites representing different Resource and Energy Intensive Industries (REIIs). The sectors involved include glass, copper, aluminium and water treatment, each presenting different decarbonisation challenges and operating conditions.
For example, glass and metals rely on high-temperature industrial processes that are difficult to electrify and decarbonise, while water treatment facilities are more strongly linked to electricity demand and operational flexibility. Testing solutions across these sectors allows TRINEFLEX to demonstrate how industrial transformation must be adapted to specific production environments rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach.
Alongside technological innovation, the project also recognises the importance of skills development and workforce readiness. For this reason, TRINEFLEX has introduced a dedicated training framework to support knowledge sharing and help industries build the capabilities needed for long-term sustainable transformation.