Cyber-physical energy systems (CPES) describe a specialization of the cyber-physical system concept, in which energy systems are transformed into intelligent energy networks. These systems provide the basis for the realization of smart microgrids and smart grids. In the last decade, numerous research projects have intensively explored the fundamentals and modeling of CPES and validated them in pilot projects. In the meantime, more and more CPES solutions have been appearing on the market and the battle for the most suitable standards has begun. This paper gives an overview of the currently available standards for CPES sensor technologies and assesses the suitability for implementation. In two case studies in the application area of operational energy management in German companies, a sensor retrofitting is described—once with proprietary technology and once using the standards Long Range (LoRa) Wide Area Network and OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA). As a result, the shortcomings of the standards for their use in CPES are shown and discussed. OPC UA, which was originally developed for the manufacturing industry, turns out to be to be a suitable standard for a wide range of CPES implementations.

Directive 2012/27/UE of the European Parliament has created a new motivation for energy audits: the avoidance of penalties. According to this directive, large companies in all EU member states must carry out energy audits at least every four years. Does this obligation affect the quality of energy audits? We hypothesize that voluntary audits, in comparison to mandatory audits, have a higher quality level in terms of a higher investment in energy efficiency measures. While mandatory audits must always take the entire company into account, voluntary energy audits allow companies to focus on the most promising business or process areas. The energy balance limits can also be drawn more focused. The auditor can also be selected according to specific professional qualifications. As a methodology, we first define quality criteria for energy audits based on the energy efficiency measures determined. Important factors are the adoption rate, the calculated energy savings and the consideration of non-energy benefits in the calculation. The validation of the collected quality criteria is carried out by a comparison with the results of already existing research work. In an empirical study, we then compare data from audits of both types that have already been carried out with regard to the quality characteristics found. Via a database with 1,692 energy audits conducted in Germany in the years 2014-2016, we can draw up detailed comparisons of the energy balances and, in particular, of the measures calculated. This enables clear conclusions to be drawn about the differences in quality between the different program types.

This paper focuses on quantifying the economic and financial viability of NB-IoT and LoRaWAN technologies, two low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) technologies with unique characteristics that make them suitable for IoT applications. The purpose of this study is to propose a “pragmatic” artifact for performing life cycle cost analysis and demonstrate its application to these technologies. The methodology uses pragmatic computational tools to facilitate the analysis and considers all relevant economic and financial factors, such as operating costs, equipment costs, and revenue potential. The main finding of this study is that Narrow Band-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) technologies have different cost structures and revenue potentials, which may affect their economic and financial viability for different IoT applications. Ultimately, the study concludes that a comprehensive life cycle cost analysis is critical to making informed decisions about technology adoption, and that the proposed methodology can be applied to other IoT technologies to gain insight into their economic and financial viability.

According to ISO 50001, energy management systems have become widespread in the manufacturing industry. Especially for most large, energy-intensive companies, an energy management system has become an indispensable component of cost planning and sustainability strategy. Energy monitoring is used for continuously evaluating energy flows. Networked and distributed monitoring in industrial production environments is becoming increasingly common with cyber-physical systems (CPS) and can take advantage of them. Considering this, the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) framework plays a decisive role, as it networks all factory components and creates a standard for interoperability between the components. In a literature review context, this paper examines the flexible OPC UA standard, particularly concerning its applicability to energy monitoring. The research question concerns which OPC UA aspects are of relevance for an energy management system. To reduce the technical resources, a subset of the complete standard tailored to the specific task can also be available in the components. Here, we investigate the requirements an energy-related CPS has to fulfill and extract the standard’s relevant components and characteristics from the OPC UA framework based on these requirements. Using the information model of OPC UA, an energy sensor becomes a CPS. We demonstrate this process in a prototypical implementation.

This paper focuses on quantifying the economic and financial viability of NB-IoT and LoRaWAN technologies, two low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) technologies with unique characteristics that make them suitable for IoT applications. The purpose of the study is to propose an artefact for performing life cycle cost analysis and demonstrate its application to these technologies. The methodology uses pragmatic computational tools to facilitate the analysis and considers all relevant economic and financial factors, such as operating costs, equipment costs, and revenue potential. The main finding of the study is that NB-IoT and LoRaWAN technologies have different cost structures and revenue potentials, which may affect their economic and financial viability for different IoT applications. Ultimately, the study concludes that a comprehensive life cycle cost analysis is critical to making informed decisions about technology adoption, and that the proposed methodology can be applied to other IoT technologies to gain insight into their economic and financial viability.