2. Current problems in electricity consumption and generation

Regarding ICT solutions, the most important measures to reduce the energy poverty and to increase consumers' awareness toward energy efficiency concern both electricity suppliers and consumers. For electricity suppliers, market segmentation can be used to determine dynamic consumes' profiles to better understand consumption behavior and also to set up strategies and plans for different consumers groups. Another important measure for electricity suppliers consists in consumption (load) forecasting for short and medium term, used for planning the grid resources and wholesale electricity markets bids. For consumers, with the introduction of smart metering (SM) systems, their awareness increased and new methods must be taken into consideration such as consumption optimization of household appliances through userfriendly interfaces, micro-generation (through photovoltaic panels, small wind turbines and storage devices), mobile applications for real time billing with detailed information regarding appliances' consumption or own generation sources.
