Energy Use and the Internet

This entry introduces the Internet’s relation to energy use by focusing on the energy Internet. The energy Internet is a proposed Internet-style solution for bottom-up construction of energy infrastructure and applications. Key features of the energy Internet include decentralized coordination of energy production and consumption that enables open and peer-to-peer energy sharing.

The aim of the energy Internet is to maintain an iterative balance among energy generation, storage, and consumers in real time. By allowing high-level awareness and involvement in the form of cooperation and interaction, secure and reliable delivery of energy would be achieved through efficient scheduling, distribution, and routing across peers of energy cells. This entry opens with an overview of how the Internet can shape energy use. It then introduces the energy Internet, ...