Energy Informatics: Tackling energy poverty in vulnerable communities

Energy poverty is a pressing issue worldwide, which is particularly acute in vulnerable communities experiencing climate, societal, cultural, infrastructural, and technical challenges. Addressing this issue through ecosystem-driven energy solutions is essential, but traditional approaches are inefficient. Energy informatics offers a foundation for developing and testing sustainable, resilient, and affordable energy ecosystem solutions. To overcome challenges in developing these solutions, we recommend several aspects of energy informatics. These include using virtual living labs to develop solutions that meet local needs, synthetic data generation to portray the community with the necessary five dimensions, digital twin-based solution-in-the-loop testing to ensure solutions are appropriate before implementation, and AI prediction for ecosystem stakeholders’ behaviors and decision-making. Our paper highlights the importance of energy informatics and offers a roadmap for creating energy ecosystem solutions that "leave no one behind."