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Context

BEE is an energy producer and supplier active in the Belgian electricity market. From its bioenergy base, the company generates renewable electricity and produces large volumes of steam, which are distributed through one of Belgium’s largest heat networks to industrial partners in the port of Ghent.

As the energy transition accelerates, BEE is evolving from a traditional producer into a flexibility-driven energy player. Instead of simply generating energy, the focus is shifting toward actively steering when and how energy is produced and consumed. This transition requires new ways of thinking about assets like solar, wind, batteries, and heat systems. Not as standalone installations, but as a coordinated and flexible energy ecosystem.

To support this evolution, BEE partnered with Companion.energy to unlock real-time flexibility across its growing portfolio of renewable and thermal assets.

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Challenge

The increasing share of renewable energy in the system introduces volatility and complexity.

Electricity prices fluctuate more frequently. Renewable production is intermittent. And large-scale assets such as solar parks, wind farms, batteries, and heat systems all behave differently and require coordinated control.

For BEE, the challenge was not only to produce renewable energy, but to actively align production and consumption with market conditions. Without compromising operational stability.

This required the ability to:

• Balance multiple asset types in real time
• React to changing market prices and grid signals
• Maximize the value of renewable production
• Increase the use of flexible assets such as boilers, batteries, and heat networks
• Reduce reliance on fossil-based backup systems

Without advanced coordination, valuable flexibility potential would remain unused, limiting both economic performance and renewable integration.

BEE needed a system capable of turning distributed energy assets into one unified, responsive flexibility portfolio.

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Our Solution

Companion.energy enables BEE to transform its entire energy ecosystem into a coordinated flexibility platform.

By connecting and analyzing data across solar, wind, battery storage, and thermal assets, the platform continuously optimizes when energy is produced, stored, or consumed based on real-time market signals and price forecasts.

This allows BEE to actively steer its energy assets, including the newest generation of flexible systems such as electric boilers and heat-based infrastructure.

Through this approach, Companion.energy helps BEE:

• Align energy production with low-price and high-renewable periods
• Maximize the value of renewable and thermal assets
• Increase system-wide flexibility across multiple technologies
• Reduce dependency on fossil-fuel-based balancing
• Enable real-time optimization of heat and power networks
• Accelerate the integration of renewables into the energy system

The partnership marks a shift from static energy production to dynamic energy orchestration. Where every asset contributes to a smarter, more flexible, and more sustainable grid.

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