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This chapter was conceived having in mind non-spe-
cialist readers. And its purpose is to illustrate that the concepts
of Industry 4.0 have a much broader application that simply
in the manufacturing industry. Pervasive sensing and intelli-
gent agents are becoming disseminated in global electricity
networks, especially at distribution level with smart grids, and
impacting on household uses, distributed generation and sto-
rage and electric vehicle usage.
Transition of mobility to an electricity-dominated para-
digm is also smoothed by pervasive sensing and intelligent
control, so that transitions costs are reduced as much as pos-
sible, consumer comfort is guaranteed and the efficient use of
renewable energy is maximized.
At the same time, energy usage is being integrated in
the industrial manufacturing process, allowing for renewable
energy to be dealt with in the most efficient manner as a pro-
duction factor – so much that inventory may now be interpre-
ted as an energy storage means. The adequate plant layout
design and operations planning, integrating renewable energy
forecasting, can be achieved by representing the systems in
digital twins, a typical tool of the Industry 4.0 era.
Finally, massive sensing and intelligent tools may
also be used to condition the very human behaviour behind
energy use in buildings, changing perceptions by a lear-
ning-from-examples paradigm. While one may aim at deep
levels of automation, it is ultimately the human perception that
will guide decisions, both in daily life and in business environ-
ments.
The world faces a daunting threat: climate change, in
a rhythm never witnessed in historical times and without any
perceived natural phenomenon (such as a meteor impact or
massive volcanic eruptions) being detected. It is the scientific
consensus, and common sense, we might add, that human
activity, releasing carbon dioxide and methane in in atmos-
phere, is the main culprit. Energy transformation and use are
the dominant cause – decarbonisation of human activities is a

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