New HomeWhiz feature schedules appliance cycles for lower-cost hours, helping households reduce electricity costs while supporting more flexible demand on the grid.
ISTANBUL, Nov. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Beko announces FlexiStart, a new feature powered by its HomeWhiz app that enables connected home appliances to run when electricity is cheaper. Available from January 2027, with energy provider integration starting in Germany and Türkiye, FlexiStart gives households a simple way to pay less for electricity by moving part of their use away from peak hours.
Ahead of its rollout, Beko will showcase FlexiStart at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye (9–20 November 2026), as an example of how connected appliances can help households shift their electricity use in response to prices, the kind of demand flexibility that energy systems increasingly need as the share of renewable energy grows.
Electricity is not priced the same all day as prices fluctuate with the balance between supply and demand. They tend to fall when demand is low or supply is plentiful and rise in the morning and especially the evening as demand climbs. FlexiStart puts that gap to work. For households on dynamic or time-of-use tariffs, that difference shows up directly on their bill.
HomeWhiz looks at the day's prices and suggests the best time to run the chosen program. One tap confirms it, and the appliance runs the same operation cycle during a lower-cost period.
FlexiStart works in two ways. Where Beko partners with an energy provider, the provider's tariff prices flow into HomeWhiz automatically, so every time interval recommendation is based on up-to-date prices. Users can also enter the cheaper hours of their own tariff, and FlexiStart schedules operation cycles within them.
The feature will be available on washing machines, dishwashers and tumble dryers, with plans to add refrigerators and air conditioners for later in 2027.
Two new energy provider partnerships in Germany and Türkiye are planned to go live at launch, giving their customers time interval recommendations based on their own tariff automatically. The partnerships connect what households pay for electricity with how their appliances use it: customers can benefit from lower-cost periods, while providers gain more flexible demand to support grid balancing. Both follow an earlier pilot in the Netherlands, and Beko plans to extend partnerships to further markets in phases.
As the share of variable renewable electricity grows, power systems need more demand optimisation that can shift across the day. The EU Code of Conduct on Energy Smart Appliances (ESA) sets out how appliances provide this flexibility, with brands committing to make them work with home energy management systems from any brand through a common standard. Beko is a founding signatory of the Code, and FlexiStart puts the same idea into practice in everyday homes.
"A small shift in when households turn their appliances on can add up to real flexibility for the grid, and lower bills for the families who make it happen," said Ragıp Balcıoğlu, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Beko. "FlexiStart makes that shift simple. Bringing it to COP31 is our way of showing that the energy transition happens in homes as well as in power stations."
About Beko
Beko is an international home appliance company with a strong global presence, operating through subsidiaries in more than 55 countries with a workforce of around 45,000 employees and production facilities spanning multiple regions—including Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Beko has 22 brands owned or used with a limited license (Arçelik, Beko, Whirlpool*, Grundig, Hotpoint, Arctic, Ariston*, Leisure, Indesit, Blomberg, Defy, Dawlance, Hitachi*, Voltas Beko, Singer*, ElektraBregenz, Flavel, Bauknecht, Privileg, Altus, Ignis, Polar). Beko is the largest white goods company in Europe with its market share (based on volumes) and reached a consolidated turnover of 10.7 billion Euros in 2025. Beko's 28 R&D and Design Centers & Offices across the globe are home to over 2,000 R&D employees and hold more than 4,500 international registered patent applications to date. The company has achieved the highest score in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) in the DHP Household Durables industry for the seventh consecutive year (based on the results dated 16 October 2025).** The company has been recognized as the 89th most sustainable company on TIME Magazine and Statista's 2026 list of the World's Most Sustainable Companies and has been the sector leader for three consecutive years. Beko's vision is 'Respecting the World, Respected Worldwide.'
www.bekocorporate.com
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**The data presented belongs to Arçelik A.Ş., a parent company of Beko. %
** This press release is distributed by PR Newswire through automated distribution system, for which the client assumes full responsibility. **
Beko's FlexiStart helps households run appliances when electricity is cheaper
Beko's FlexiStart helps households run appliances when electricity is cheaper
Wenge AI expands access to AI-powered research evaluation, helping international researchers identify innovation opportunities and assess emerging technologies.
BEIJING, Nov. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Wenge AI (1956.HK) today announced an upgrade to ScienceOra, its AI-powered scientific research and decision-support platform, introducing full English-language support for its Innovation Evaluation capability. The upgrade is designed to make advanced research intelligence and technology assessment more accessible to researchers, universities, research institutions and R&D organisations worldwide.
Innovation Evaluation helps researchers move beyond conventional literature searches to develop a broader understanding of scientific developments, identify emerging research opportunities and assess potential technology pathways. By combining scientific literature, research project information and industrial R&D intelligence, ScienceOra provides structured analytical support for research planning and innovation assessment.
From research information to innovation intelligence
ScienceOra's Innovation Evaluation capability draws on a large-scale knowledge base covering publicly available research projects from more than 40 countries, industrial R&D reports, academic publications and patents.
The platform integrates multiple dimensions of research information to help users:
- Identify emerging research directions: Discover relevant scientific developments, research trends and potential opportunities for innovation.
- Analyse the research landscape: Examine research activity, technological progress and relevant evidence across multiple dimensions.
- Evaluate technical approaches: Compare potential research and technology pathways to support more informed decisions.
- Generate structured assessments: Organise findings into analytical reports that support research planning and strategic evaluation.
By bringing these capabilities together, ScienceOra helps researchers develop a more systematic view of the scientific and technological landscape surrounding a research question.
Bringing professional research evaluation to English-speaking users
With the latest upgrade, researchers can engage with the Innovation Evaluation workflow in English, making it easier for international users to explore research topics, examine relevant evidence and obtain structured analytical outputs.
The English-language capability is intended to reduce language barriers in accessing scientific intelligence and support collaboration across international research communities. It also provides universities, research organisations and corporate R&D teams with a more accessible way to explore potential innovation directions and assess technology opportunities.
The upgrade extends ScienceOra's existing AI-for-Science capabilities to a broader international audience, supporting research activities from early-stage topic exploration to more focused technology assessment.
AI-supported analysis for more informed research decisions
According to ScienceOra's published platform information, its Innovation Evaluation capability draws on more than 32 million publicly available research project records, 700,000 industrial R&D reports, and 270 million academic papers and patents.
Wenge AI reports that the platform can reduce certain research assessment processes from several weeks to less than one hour, with evaluation results achieving more than 80% alignment with expert conclusions. These capabilities are intended to help researchers organise complex information and identify promising directions more efficiently.
Advancing the international reach of AI for Science
The English-language upgrade represents another step in Wenge AI's efforts to make specialised scientific intelligence and AI-powered research tools accessible to the global research community.
As scientific research becomes increasingly interdisciplinary and international, researchers need more efficient ways to navigate expanding bodies of literature, understand emerging technologies and evaluate competing research approaches. Through ScienceOra, Wenge AI aims to connect scientific knowledge, data, models and research tools in a unified environment that supports more informed research and innovation decisions.
For more information, visit: https://www.scienceone.ai/portal/
About Wenge AI
Wenge AI (1956.HK) is a provider of artificial intelligence technology and service platform products for enterprises. With self-developed large models as its core, the company helps enterprises build practical intelligent platforms and applications. Founded by a team of AI scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenge AI has deep technological expertise in large models, cognitive intelligence and complex-system modeling, and is committed to advancing AI from technological capabilities to enterprise-level applications.
Website: https://www.wenge.com
** This press release is distributed by PR Newswire through automated distribution system, for which the client assumes full responsibility. **
ScienceOra Upgrades Innovation Evaluation with Full English-Language Research Support
