# Vision, Enabling Technologies, and Scenarios for a 6G-Enabled Internet of Verticals (6G-IoV)
## 3 Future Scenarios for the Internet of Verticals
### The Internet of Smart Energy Grids  
The United Nations progress report on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) states that since 2012, the growth of renewables (has) outpaced the growth of total energy consumption [25], and this trend has been accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., we can find further evidence in relation to COVID-19. While there was a 3.8% decrease in energy demand during the first quarter of 2020 due to the lockdown, renewables were the only energy sources that posted a growth in demand, driven by larger installed capacity and priority dispatch. Hence, society as a whole is moving towards the use of renewable and sustainable energy sources. Consequently, the increase in energy demand will not be manageable unless the traditional electricity grid evolves. The convergence of the ICT infrastructure with the electricity domain, the Smart Grid (SG), has enabled new services and business opportunities, including customer-side generation and real-time energy consumption, which are guiding a significant revolution in the energy landscape. The SG is also underpinning the emergences of new actors and entities in the energy ecosystem. In particular, the future energy user does not only consume energy but performs a crucial role as an energy Prosumer (energy producers and energy consumers) as well as providing distributed platform for renewables' energy storage, e.g., electric vehicles. These new actors are going to play a crucial role in the transition of the energy sector towards 100% renewables as well as a disruption of the entire energy value chain, resulting in the emergence of new aggregator/retailer in addition to Energy Services Companies (ESCOs), Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), Microgrids (MGs) and Prosumer Consumer Group (PCGs), which are also new components in the energy market value chain [26]. The growth in end-use consumption results in electricity generation increasing 79% between 2018 and 2050. Electricity use grows in the residential sector as rising population and standards of living in non-OECD countries increase the demand for appliances and personal equipment. Electricity use also increases in the industry and business sectors as well as demonstrating a steep rise in transportation sector as plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) enter the fleet and electricity use for the rail expands. Consequently, besides the residential sector, industry and enterprise verticals can be expected to become a key component of energy prosumer by 2050, while EVs are expected to play a major role in both prosumer and energy storage for future smart grids. Due to their energy intensity, industrial prosumers are important players in the energy transition. Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) onsite (e.g., renewables, storage) can further help their business case. In recent years, there has been an exponential growth in offshore wind power turbines as a key renewable energy technology towards achieving carbon  
Figure 3: Transformation of robotics from specialized verticals to horizontal and virtualised robotic service platforms enabled by the IOR, and the emergence of a robotic apps ecosystem. neutrality by 2050, and there is great interest recently in floating wind power turbines, as they can be reconfigured based on wind speed, water depth and distance to shore. Finally, the Vehicle to Grid technology (V2G) enables energy stored in Electric Vehicles to be fed back into the electricity network (grid) to help supply energy at times of peak demand and is considered a key component of future smart grids. In order to provide monitoring and control in real time and integrate these emerging energy and storage system into the smart grid, a unified, high stability and ultra-reliable wireless communication infrastructure is required, which also support high-bandwidth, low-latency and mobility requirements. Network slicing also seems to be a promising and optimal solution for the diverse performance requirements of smart grids.