Technologies, new business models and collaboration among industry stakeholders: these will be at the heart of the session organised by RSE as part of E-Charge 2026, the event dedicated to the electric vehicle charging industry and market, taking place from 7 to 9 October 2026 at BolognaFiere.

The event is scheduled for Thursday, 8 October, from 4:30 to 6:00 pm, in the Luigi Galvani Room – Hall 21, and will represent a particularly significant moment for the sector. RSE will exclusively present the launch of the National Roundtable for the Enhancement of Flexibility Enabled by the CIR, an initiative created to address one of the key challenges in the evolution of smart charging.

The session is part of Urban Tech – The Urban Technology Show, the new event dedicated to technologies and solutions for cities and mobility, with a focus on e-mobility, traffic, commuting, security, TLC & data and environment.

From charging to flexibility: a new opportunity for the electricity system

The growing spread of electric mobility is profoundly transforming the energy system. Alongside the increasing number of electric vehicles and charging infrastructures, there is also rapid development of distributed renewable energy sources, electrochemical energy storage, Renewable Energy Communities and intelligent energy management systems.

In this context, the CIR – Charging Infrastructure Controller, as defined in Annex X of the CEI 0-21 Standard and in CEI PAS 57-127, can play a strategic role: transforming electric vehicle charging from a simple consumption service into a flexibility resource available to users, energy communities, aggregators, distribution system operators and system operators.

Technology, however, is only part of the challenge. Research, standardisation and pilot activities have highlighted the need to focus, above all, on developing sustainable business models capable of creating value for the electricity system while also generating economic benefits for end users.

How, then, can the flexibility offered by charging infrastructures be monetised and enhanced? Who can aggregate it? How should the different stakeholders be remunerated? And how can grid services, flexibility markets and local optimisation systems be coordinated while avoiding overlaps and conflicts? These are some of the questions that the new National Roundtable aims to help answer.

An open roundtable for the entire CIR ecosystem

To address these issues, RSE, in collaboration with ANIE, Elettricità Futura and FLEXIT, has launched an open and inclusive Working Group dedicated to analysing and enhancing business models within the CIR ecosystem.

The aim is to bring together the different players across the value chain, encouraging dialogue between different areas of expertise, needs and perspectives, and identifying concrete conditions to make flexibility an effectively usable and economically valuable resource.

The official launch of the initiative will take place at E-Charge 2026, through a session combining presentations and a roundtable discussion.

The session will open with a presentation by Giuseppe Mauri of RSE, addressing the question: why is a working group needed? This will be followed by an in-depth discussion of the business models to be developed within the charging and flexibility ecosystem, together with a presentation of the initial results of the activities carried out so far. The session will conclude with a roundtable entitled: “Energy flexibility and smart charging: who creates value and how is it distributed?”

The discussion will involve representatives from the various components of the ecosystem, including grid operators, aggregators, CPOs, technology providers, Energy Communities and consumer representatives. The focus will be on business models, remuneration mechanisms, and ways of coordinating grid services, flexibility markets and local optimisation strategies.

The ambition is to go beyond a purely theoretical discussion and identify concrete elements for building an ecosystem in which charging-enabled flexibility can become a concrete, interoperable and profitable resource, capable of generating value for all the stakeholders involved.

For industry players, the 8 October event will be an opportunity to gain an early insight into a new national initiative and, above all, to contribute to the discussion on a topic that is set to play an increasingly important role in the development of electric mobility and the energy system.

The event will take place at E-Charge 2026 on Thursday, 8 October, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm, in the Luigi Galvani Room – Hall 21, BolognaFiere.