The European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback to the inception roadmap on the EU Action Plan on the Digitalisation of the Energy Sector.
Digitalisation is key to accelerate the decarbonisation of the economy while ensuring business competitiveness. Digitalisation makes it possible to deliver energy at the right time, in the right place and at the lowest cost. It provides excellent opportunities to further reduce energy demand and optimise energy consumption. Furthermore, the digitalisation of the energy system allows citizens to actively participate in the energy market and is the foundation for energy systems integration, ensuring better integration and use of energy from e.g. distributed energy resources directly powered by renewables (e.g. heat pumps, EV charging, on-site solar panels, etc.) and surplus heat. In support of this, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), investments in digital electricity infrastructure and software has grown by over 20% annually since 2014.