On the way to the energy Internet: new regulations, business models, economic and technical background

Abstract

The article discusses issues related to the so-called energy Internet. The energy system today is fundamentally transformed and becomes much more complex and dynamic. In fact, the old ways of balancing power supply and network requests to meet customer needs are no longer enough, network customers expect and demand more. Accordingly, the network itself evolves into a dynamic, digital network connecting millions of distributed energy resources. This new system is called the energy Internet, and it covers both energy and data flowing through the network. These are new concepts that represent major changes in the energy market, which have existed with virtually no changes for so many years. The article discusses new regulations, business models, economic and technical prerequisites of the energy Internet based on EU materials. The paper describes the current state of energy in the EU and the prerequisites for change. Trans-European networks and priority corridors are considered in detail. The central element in EU energy research is the issue of smart networks, the development of which can be considered an important stage in the development of the energy Internet. Today, Germany leads the European countries in terms of the number of smart grid projects, followed by Denmark. It also discusses new smart grids in the context of the new generation of the Internet (NGI).