# Review and Categorization of Digital Applications in the Energy Sector
## 3 Objective and Approach of the Literature Review  
The objective of the literature review is to identify applications of digitalization in the energy sector with a focus on the German market. In a second step, these applications are then clustered. Furthermore it is analyzed which applications are considered to have which benefits and which are the profiting stakeholders. Therefore, ten publications [7; 8; 16; 34; 35; 36; 37; 38; 39; 40] have been identified which cover a broad view of the digitalization across different technologies and along the entire value chain of the energy sector. The ten publications consist of two publications by renowned organizations presenting their views, three collected edition publications from researchers, politicians and business as well as association representatives, one survey conducted among German utilities, one meta-study regarding five specific aspects of the digitalization and three studies of the effects of the \"smart meter\" roll-out as one important aspect of the digitalization. The IEA and OECD publication \"Digitalization and Energy\" [7] offers an exhaustive overview of the impacts of digitalization on various energy-related sectors, among them the power sector. Besides that, it also covers the critical points own-consumption of electricity of ICT, threats due to cyber security and economic disruptions, and policy aspects. The BDEW (German Association of Energy and Water Industries) publication \"The digital energy economy\" [8] discusses similar aspects with a focus on the electricity sector. The collected edition \"Chances and challenges due to the digitalization of the economy\" [34] includes statements on the digitalization of politicians and business as well as association representatives regarding various energy-related sectors. All value chain steps of the energy sector are covered and many different stakeholder perspectives represented. A structured overview of business models and digital applications along the stakeholders of the value chain is presented in [34] (pp. 51-58). The publication \"Challenge Utility 4.0\" [16] also covers all value chain steps of the energy sector but besides mainly describing the impact of digitalization, it also includes suggestions on how to approach the digital transformation for companies. Thus, there are many business representatives among the authors of the collected edition. \"Digitalization of the Energy sector\" [35] by SETIS (part of the European Commission) naturally focuses more on the political aspects but nevertheless covers a broad spectrum of digital applications along the entire value stream. The authors of the edited edition are mainly politicians and association and business representatives. \"Digital@EVU\" [36] is a survey conducted by A.T. Kearney on behalf of BDEW among German utilities. Although the utilities cover all value chain steps, the customer-related digital applications have a higher focus. Besides the used digital applications, the survey also analyses the companies' approach to digital transformation. In the meta-study \"The digitalization of the energy transition\" [37] different aspects, such as virtual power plants, \"smart grid\", blockchain, load management, and electricity own consumption of ICT devices, are analyzed among 38 publications. The three \"smart meter\" roll-out studies all cover the effect of the \"smart meter\" on the energy system. Naturally, as the \"smart meter\" is a device at the customer level, the main focus is on customer-related digital applications. However, since the \"smart meter\" can have effects across the entire value chain these are also covered. The three publications differ in the regions the \"smart meters\" are applied. While [38] focuses on Germany and therefore is entirely applicable to this literature review, for the other two studies, which focus on the UK [39] and the US [40], only aspects relevant for Germany are considered.