The Energy 4.0 Concept and Its Relationship with the S³ Framework

The integration of cyber-physical systems into industrial production systems is called Industry 4.0, referring to the fourth industrial revolution. On the other hand, a cyber-physical system is understood as incorporating sensing, computation, control, and networking into physical objects, linking them and the Internet. Currently, the technologies that compose cyber-physical systems have a fast development attracting the attention of the industry and academy. As a result, comments, discussions, and analysis to applying the industry 4.0 concept and elements that are integrated have emerged in several fields such as medicine, engineering, economics, energy, etc. Mainly, the energy sector is focusing on the digitalization of the energy industry, where the information and communications technology, energy management, and intelligent buildings are considered. Moreover, the concept of energy 4.0 is not clear enough since it could be considered only to integrate technology to the network. However, this paper coins a novel definition in which energy 4.0 integrates green, digital and intelligent management of energy according with the end-user social and economic requirements. This new structure of the energy sector has been called Energy 4.0. In this paper, the S3 (innovative, sensing, and sustainably) Framework is applied as an alternative for product innovation in Energy sector. Furthermore, two examples of Energy 4.0 systems are shown.