Kashef, M, O, A Troisi, Visvisi2023-07-092023-07-092023-06-01Kashef, M., O. Troisi, and A. Visvisi. Smart energy solutions: two-way energy information exchange between utility companies, consumers, and prosumers, Routledge Handbook of Energy Communities and Smart Cities, Edited By Maciej M. Sokołowski, Anna VisviziISBN 9781032247878http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14131/965This Handbook examines the regulatory, social, financial, and technological issues pertaining to energy communities in smart cities. Evidencing the emergence of new imperatives at the intersection of sustainability, resilience, innovation, and legal issues, energy communities embody the thrust of the user-centred digital transformation our societies are subjected to today. By bridging the energy communities’ debate with smart cities research, this Handbook positions itself at the heart of the conversation on energy sustainability, climate action, and ‘just transition’. Drawing on contributions from across the globe, this book offers both a birds-eye and a detailed inter- and multidisciplinary insight into the emergence of energy communities and their evolution in the smart city context. Technological and regulatory aspects of this transition are explored from a variety of conceptual and empirical perspectives. Case studies evidencing developments in the Global South and the Global North embellish the conversation. Questions of climate change, energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, emissions’ reduction, and corresponding policy frameworks are discussed. Dedicated to all those interested in climate action, energy transition, sustainable development, and smart cities, this Handbook will be of interest to policymakers, lawyers, energy and urban experts, researchers, and students.Smart cities are gradually but surely developing the infrastructure and system architecture required for integrating public and private energy services. With the mounting evidence that fossil fuels are detrimental to the environment, it is imperative to integrate renewable energy sources with existing utility infrastructure. The monopoly of utility companies on energy production and distribution is being eroded due to the proliferation of renewable energy sources (RES) from private prosumers (producers/consumers). Prosumers have developed some capacity to generate a power surplus that exceeds their immediate needs. Individuals and group prosumers have created energy communities with infrastructural and technological ecosystems that allow them to generate, control, monitor, and trade power over private and public utility networks. Multi-layered wireless mesh networks (WMN) that connect multi-sensor modules (MSM) and big data analytics servers with built in AI capacity are facilitating the development of smart energy solutions. They will revolutionize the energy sector and reconfigure the process of energy production, distribution, and information sharing among individuals, communities, and existing utility companies. Considering the fact that (i) the pace of urbanization increases, (ii) energy demand in (smart) urban spaces grows, and (iii) prosumers and, so energy communities, play an ever more important role also in the (smart) city context space, the objective of this chapter is to review the existing smart energy systems and the prospect of their application in the smart city space. The notions of energy supply and demand for energy and the role of energy communities will form the thread of the discussion in this chapter.smart energy solutions, smart power grids, automated energy management, wireless mesh networks, renewable energy sourcesSMART