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Energy Is Essential, but Utilities? Digitalization: What Does It Mean for the Energy Sector?

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Machine‐to‐machine (M2M) communications is used for automated data transmission and measurement between mechanical or electronic devices. The key components of an M2M system are: Field‐deployed wireless devices with embedded sensors or RFID‐Wireless communication networks with complementary wireline access includes, but is not limited to cellular communication, Wi‐Fi, ZigBee, WiMAX, wireless LAN (WLAN), generic DSL (xDSL) and fiber to the x (FTTx) [5]. A smart meter is such a M2M device.

  2. 2.

    Currently German household consumers mainly use electromechanical electricity meters (Ferraris meters). These traditional meters only provide very limited information and no electronic data transfer. In comparison intelligent measuring systems consist of a digital meter and a communication unit, the smart meter gateway, which allows the integration of the smart meter into a smart grid.

  3. 3.

    The “Digitisation of the Energy Turnaround Act” (“Gesetz zur Digitalisierung der Energiewende”) contains a framework for the electricity sector to become digital. The central part of the Act is the “Smart Meters Operation Act” (“Messstellenbetriebsgesetz”), that deals mainly with the installation and operation of intelligent metering systems [6].

  4. 4.

    The Federal Network Agency is the German regulatory office for electricity, gas, telecommunications, mail and railway markets. It is a federal government agency of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology [8].

  5. 5.

    The information is based on an internal presentation on Opus, screened for utilities during a recent event. With Opus IBM wants to build a system that optimally plan and orchestrate energy systems of the future by using its expertise in analytics, big data and the Internet of Things.

  6. 6.

    A “prosumer” produces and consumes energy.

  7. 7.

    A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger, comprised of unchangeable, digitally recorded data in packages called blocks. These digitally recorded “blocks” of data is stored in a linear chain and each “block” contains data, a timestamp and a link to a previous block. The blocks of cryptographically hashed data drawn upon the previous‐block in the chain, ensuring all data in the overall “blockchain” has not been tampered with and remains unchanged. It is a peer to peer platform using blockchain ledger to report transactions (e. g. bitcoin transaction) [19, 20].

  8. 8.

    Microgrids are localized grids that can disconnect from the traditional grid to operate autonomously [23].

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  1. Stadtwerke Düsseldorf AG, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Ines Varela

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  1. Ines Varela
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Correspondence to Ines Varela .

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  1. Institut für Informatik, LMU München, Munich, Bayern, Germany

    Claudia Linnhoff-Popien

  2. Allianz SE, Munich, Bayern, Germany

    Ralf Schneider

  3. Munich Airport, Munich, Bayern, Germany

    Michael Zaddach

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Varela, I. (2018). Energy Is Essential, but Utilities? Digitalization: What Does It Mean for the Energy Sector?. In: Linnhoff-Popien, C., Schneider, R., Zaddach, M. (eds) Digital Marketplaces Unleashed. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49275-8_73

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