Digitization creates the technical basis for systematically exploiting the potential for reducing energy consumption. With targeted data collection and processing, energy users can be sensitized and motivated to adequately dimension and operate devices and systems according to their usage types, patterns, and comfort requirements. In addition, operation can be (partially) automated through intelligent control systems. In addition, operation can be (partially) automated through intelligent controls. In order to be able to save energy with the help of digital applications, smart metering is the first necessary step, which must be flanked by products, software and services that enable users, operators or the devices and systems themselves to exploit energy efficiency and savings potential. Digitization offers a number of starting points and opportunities to provide and use energy precisely in line with actual demand and thus much more efficiently than before.

The project Detective systematically quantified both the opportunities and the risks of the increasing digitization of the energy system on the energy application side. To this end, possible efficiency potentials were recorded and the potentials of digitization for energy optimization of device and system operation and for supporting energy-saving and environmentally friendly user behavior were systematized. In particular, the need for data that must be collected to exploit the efficiency potential on the consumer side was analyzed. In addition, the expenditures required for the production and operation of the systems and for data processing were examined. The life cycle assessment approach, an established and widely used method for the holistic, ecological evaluation of products, goods and services, was used. Basically, the project distinguished between digital applications that serve to record electricity consumption and those for efficient heat supply.