Abstract
The way the world gets its energy is undergoing a rapid transition, driven by both the increased urgency of decarbonizing energy systems and the plummeting costs of renewable energy technologies. The road to the future will not be easy, and indeed, new technologies, markets, architectures, infrastructures, actors, and business models should be developed, and major changes will be required in the regulation of the energy systems to further support new business models and new consumption patterns. Such a transition requires rethinking every single aspect of energy systems, starting from the way energy is produced/harvested to the way that we dispatch and use it. In this area, it is also imperative to understand how to control and manage existing and emerging technologies to enhance the energy economy and efficiency by active participation in different services required by the energy networks.