Assessment of Business Benefits for the Operation of a Smart City Energy Management Platform

Managing energy production and consumption on a city level is an important, yet challenging task, since an increasing number of volatile renewable energies are being connected to the grid. Smart city energy management platforms could constitute a powerful tool for the involved market actors to effectively integrate renewable energies and thereby to refine existing business models. However, the implementation of such energy management tools is often hindered by privacy concerns or the lack of awareness about connected business benefits. In this paper, we present the concept for a decision support system that is tested in two pilot cities in Croatia and Bulgaria. Furthermore, we present a framework for the identification of the business benefits that are connected with the implementation of such a tool.