# Internet of Things (IoT) and the Energy Sector
### Methodology  
The application of IoT in different sectors and industries has been widely discussed and reviewed in the literature (for example [20; 21; 22]. Moreover, challenges and opportunities with respect to the deployment of one or a group of IoT technologies have received a high level of technical assessment, e.g., sensors [23] or 5G network [24]. With respect to the energy sector, most of survey studies have focused on one specific subsector, e.g., buildings or the technical potential of a certain IoT technology in the energy sector. For example, [PERSON] et al. [25] reviews smart home applications of IoT and the prospect of integrating those applications into an IoT enabled environment. In a study by [PERSON] et al. [26], the methods, recent advances, and implementation of 5G are studied only with focusing on the energy demand side. The role of IoT in improving energy efficiency in buildings and public transport has been discussed in [27; 28], respectively. [PERSON] et al. [29] reviews the key challenges in the suitability of IoT data transfer and communication protocols for deployment in smart grids.  
However, unlike the reviewed literature where the focus is commonly either on a specific subsector in the energy sector or certain IoT technologies, this paper reviews the application of IoT in the energy sector, from energy generation to transmission and distribution (T&D) and demand side. As such, the main contribution of this paper is to extend the existing body of literature by providing energy policy-makers, economists, energy experts, and managers with a general overview of the opportunities and challenges of applying IoT in different parts of the entire energy sector. In this respect, we briefly introduce the IoT framework and its enabling technologies to form a basis for discussing their role in the energy sector.  
To conduct this survey, a systematic search was carried out to collect and review the recent body of literature on the role of IoT in the energy sector. First, we searched the terms \"Internet of Things\" and \"Energy\", case non-specific, in the title, abstract, and keywords of publications stored in SCOPUS, IEEE, Hindawi, and Google Scholar databases. Then, we limited the scope of search results to engineering, economics and management branches where possible. Next, papers published before 2012 and most of conference papers with no information on the peer-review process were excluded. Finally, we clustered the relevant papers in sub-categories of energy generation (including power plants, ancillary services, and centralized renewable energy), T&D systems (including electricity, gas and district heating networks, and smart grids), and the demand side (including energy use in buildings, transportation, and the industry sector). We focus on the IoT applications that can be generally applicable to most of energy systems without discussing specific cases and their boundary conditions. For example, we discuss the role of IoT in smart buildings, without falling into the details of building typology, building material, occupants' energy consumption pattern, type and number of home appliances, etc.  
The rest of this paper is structured as follows. Sections 2 and 3 introduces IoT and enabling technologies, including sensors and communication technologies, cloud computing, and data analytic platforms. Section 4 reviews the role of IoT in the energy sector. Section 5 discusses the opportunities and challenges of deploying IoT, while Section 6 portrays future trends. The paper concludes in Section 7.