Europe is facing an unprecedented energy price and supply crisis. Europe must leverage the potential of the digital transformation, which is a key enabler for both accelerating the green energy transition and making energy more secure and affordable for consumers. Deploying smart energy solutions and unleashing the power of energy data can have a major positive impact on savings and consumer bills.
The European Commission’s recently adopted Digitalising the energy system Action Plan (October 2022) highlights the need to remove barriers on access to and sharing of energy data, recognising that data can be a core asset for the energy transition, to improve system efficiency, savings and empower consumers. This also needs to be fully recognised in the implementation of the RePowerEU Plan (proposed by the European Commission in May 2022) which aims to make Europe’s energy system more resilient and independent of fossil fuel imports.
The potential of smart solutions for saving, and notably a stronger role for demand-side flexibility, needs to be at the heart of emergency measures proposed by the EU and national Governments and in the forthcoming review of the Electricity Market Design (to be proposed by the Commission in 2023).
As such, we call on the European Commission, Member State Governments and European energy regulators to fully recognise the contribution of smart energy solutions for energy security and affordability and swiftly implement existing EU and national legislation (Electricity Directive and Regulation). ESMIG members are working with their partners in the technology and utility industries, across Europe and worldwide, to make energy smarter for the benefit of consumers and for a resilient, fully digitalised energy system.
In our paper we highlight 3 actions to be addressed in coordination.