Market consultation Smart Building Automation

Project goal

Flemish Energy Company (Vlaams Energiebedrijf - VEB) aims to reduce energy costs for the broader Flemish Government and to make the public sector’s real estate portfolio climate-neutral by 2050. To achieve this ambition, they focus on initiatives related to energy supply, energy efficiency, and energy data.

As part of these objectives, VEB, in collaboration with the Programme for Innovation Procurement (PIP), is exploring the potential of smart building automation to reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emissions in public buildings.

Although automation systems for building facilities already exist, they are often standalone systems that do not interact with one another. Typically, automation is implemented at the technical level, building level, or for large zones within a building, rather than at the level of individual rooms or users. The main reason why such granular control is not possible is the lack of data and hardware to support automation at that scale. As a result, much of the potential of building automation remains unused.

This project therefore explores innovative solutions that allow existing individual systems to be managed as a single, integrated system with minimal interventions. Initially, this will be tested through a number of pilot projects in various types of buildings. The goal of these pilots is to demonstrate that a Building Management System (BMS) can effectively contribute to reducing energy consumption and CO₂ emissions, while enabling the evaluation of its performance, effectiveness, user-friendliness, and cost. By making use of existing infrastructure, supplemented with additional sensors and actuators, VEB aims to gain insights into the real impact of smart automation on energy consumption and emissions—laying the groundwork for scalable solutions across thousands of public sector buildings.

Purpose of the market consultation

During the market consultation, the goal is to match VEB's needs with (partial) solutions available on the market. The objective is to assess to what extent companies can offer concrete solutions for VEB’s needs and requirements, and how innovative, feasible (in terms of time, budget, development path, etc.), and scalable these solutions are for short-term deployment.

We are primarily looking at both technology providers and integrators/installers who can ensure a smooth rollout within the pilot projects, with the aim of serving as a reference solution for potential broader implementation in the public sector’s building portfolio.

To ensure a productive discussion and meaningful outcomes, we strongly recommend that your company or research group be represented by a technically proficient staff member (rather than a sales or PR representative). These individuals are usually better positioned to assess what technological solutions may be appropriate for each need or desired functionality.

No preparation (such as presentations, pitches, etc.) is expected from participating companies and organizations. Addestino will moderate the discussion in an interactive format.

The outcome of the market consultation should enable VEB to develop, test, or procure a suitable (innovative) solution for the identified needs through a public procurement process.

Who are we looking for?

VEB is looking for partners to help reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emissions in the public sector’s building portfolio by implementing building automation systems that make maximum use of existing infrastructure.

• We are looking for integrators and providers of professional building automation solutions and building management system (BMS) who can ensure a pragmatic rollout of control equipment, as well as additional sensors and actuators, with the aim of reducing energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. These partners must also be able to deliver the necessary measurement data to evaluate the impact.
• In addition, we invite suppliers of building automation software who can offer a professional solution or possess the expertise needed to address the specific challenges of retrofitting building automation into existing buildings.

The supplier must be able to support the solution in the long term and remain available for maintenance, follow-up, and technical support.

Practicalities

The market consultation will take place on Friday, 26 September 2025, from 1pm to 5pm in auditorium 01.43 Toots Thielemans, located in the Herman Teirlinck building, Havenlaan 88, 1000 Brussels.

If there are participants who do not speak Dutch, the market consultation will be held in English.

If you are unable to attend on 26 September, either in person or online, the results of the market consultation will be made publicly available on the PIP website.

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