How will the internet of energy (IoE) revolutionize the electricity sector? A techno-economic review

Abstract

As many experts had predicted before, we are experiencing a transitional era from a traditional to a digital society where everything is interconnected with each other. A number of researchers and energy experts including Jeremy Rifkin, the author of the ‘third industrial revolution’ book, have presented a concept that is called the Internet of energy IoE. The concept that is literally the application of the internet of things IoT in the energy sector presents ambitious targets. One of them is to make renewable energy the main global source of energy generation. Several pilot projects have shown that the concept has a great potential to decarbonize, decentralize and digitize our electricity sector. And many countries including China, have adopted action plans to start applying IoE in their electricity sector. We will present in this paper the opportunities that the internet of energy could bring to the electricity sector based on research that was conducted by R&D centers, energy agencies and consulting firms. Our analysis is a systematic review about the potential benefits of IoE applications in the electricity sector. We proposed the different changes that IoE will bring to the three main layers of the electricity sector including the production, distribution/transmission and consumption. We also emphasized on the future architecture of IoE implementation in the power sector taking blockchain as the main electricity trading platform. We conducted a techno-economic case study of the implementation of IoE solutions in real life. Using modeling from Meteonorm, PV-syst and Excel, we analyzed three different scenarios to show the added value of applying IoE solutions to a 6 KWp PV solar farm in Ouarzazat-Morocco. Lastly, we presented key recommendations concerning the development phases of IoE.