# Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems Enabling Smart Positive Energy Districts
## 3 Emerging Technologies Enabling Positive Energy Districts
### Internet of Things  
The IoT is an innovative and continuously growing technology consisting of a network of physical devices with embedded software and sensors that collect and share data over the Internet [51]. The IoT is crucial for the realization of PEDs as it enables real-time monitoring, control, and optimization of energy flows across infrastructures, buildings, urban districts, and mobility systems without requiring human intervention. The IoT is important for the successful implementation of PEDs, because of real-time monitoring, progressive energy management, and efficient incorporation of renewables [52]. The IoT promotes sustainability, resilience, and a surplus energy balance in PEDs by linking and optimizing various energy resources. The development of the IoT is one of the most significant technological innovations of the 21 st century. Demand for automation and efficiency has inevitably contributed to advancements in the IoT [53]. As the IoT comprises an interconnected network of diverse devices, it connects software, hardware, and physical nodes [25]. Since the IoT aims to create knowledge and enable intelligent decision-making, it focuses on collecting and exchanging data amongst diverse devices and infrastructures in real time [54]. The IoT is defined as _\"a global dynamic information network that involves interconnected devices and objects and aims at the mutual interconnection and interaction among people, services and devices at any time and regardless of location\"_[36]. The IoT aims at the implementation of robust, autonomous, and secure interconnections and data exchange between devices and real-world applications [55]. The IoT promotes innovations as it combines numerous technologies that empower sensors and actuators to sense and collect important information, to communicate, and to collaborate, as well as to provide smart data analysis, take decisions, and take actions. IoT technologies penetrate our daily lives by introducing new contemporary ways of interaction within smart environments through sensors, actuators, and other technological devices and embedded systems. Developments in the IoT are leading to advances in various sectors, since intelligence can be infused in devices through the use of IoT and AI technologies. In particular, IoT sensing systems have brought about several innovative applications, which, in turn, have contributed to improving efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. IoT applications in PEDs include (i) smart grid integration that provides improved grid stability and integration with renewable energy sources; (ii) energy management systems enabling optimal scheduling, forecasting, and coordination;and (iii) E-mobility (electric vehicle) management, reducing GHG emissions and enabling efficient power usage and recharge. IoT services are fundamental in realizing smartness in diverse urban situations. The smart grid is one of the most significant applications of the IoT [56]. In cases where availability of or trust in communication has broken, different negative outcomes may occur, including reduced national security, interruption of public order, large-scale economic damage, or even loss of life. The use of the IoT in smart buildings involves real-time environment monitoring, building access management, and district or building energy demand and consumption. Energy management involves tasks such as planning and operation of energy production and consumption, monitoring energy levels, and distribution and storage of energy. When the IoT is used in energy management, it integrates complex digital and physical components within distributed CPSs, offering improved efficiency, reduced costs, and improved utilization of resources [45]. The concept of energy-aware distributed CPSs has been introduced to account for sustainability. Traditional non-functional requirements are being extended with supplementary attributes for sustainability, such as energy consumption [32]. Hence, [PERSON] et al.