An Introduction to Energy Informatics

A Graduate Textbook

Author

S. Keshav

Published

November 21, 2025

Preface

Book concept diagram showing the structure and organization of this textbook.

Welcome to An Introduction to Energy Informatics. This graduate-level textbook explores the intersection of computer science and energy systems—a critical frontier in addressing climate change and building sustainable infrastructure.

Climate change is the defining challenge of our era. To meet it we need tools for monitoring and forecasting, mitigation, and adaptation. Focusing on mitigation, the two clear directions are protecting Nature to prevent emissions from land use change and decarbonizing legacy systems, the main source of carbon dioxide injection into the atmosphere. In this book, we will focus on decarbonizing three key legacy systems: the power grid, transportation, and buildings, using innovative technologies such as emission-free renewables, electric vehicles, storage, and digitalization.

What is Energy Informatics?

Energy informatics is an interdisciplinary field that applies information and communication technology (ICT), data science, and computational methods to energy systems. It encompasses the collection, analysis, and application of energy-related data to improve efficiency, reliability, and sustainability.

The field has emerged from the convergence of several trends:

The digital transformation of energy systems
Growing penetration of renewable energy sources
Advancement in sensing and IoT technologies
Development of machine learning and AI techniques
Urgent need for decarbonization

Energy informatics helps tackle key challenges: variability and uncertainty of renewable energy; complexity of legacy infrastructure like the power grid, with millions of components operating in real-time; decentralization, with millions of independent control points; and the imperative for sustainability.

Goal

The goal of this book is to allow someone with a background in computer science or electrical engineering to know enough about energy systems in general, and about energy systems as they are embedded in the power grid, transportation, and buildings to contribute to the mitigation of climate change. To do so, the book builds on background knowledge in mathematics, physics, modeling, analysis, simulation and AI and adds to it tools and techniques that are not normally covered in a CS degree, such as optimization, control, neural networks for physical systems, and energy data analytics.

I anticipate that readers of the book might be:

Graduate students in computer science, electrical engineering, or energy systems
Researchers working at the intersection of computing and energy
Practitioners in the energy sector seeking to understand modern computational approaches
Anyone interested in how data science and computing can enable the energy transition

Readers should have general familiarity with energy concepts (though we provide necessary background) and at least a freshman understanding of physics (electricity, Newton’s law of cooling) and mathematics (algebra, calculus, complex numbers, systems of equations).

In selecting topics, I reviewed papers published in the last five years of the ACM eEnergy conference. My goal was that someone who has read this book should have the necessary background to understand this corpus of papers.

Plan

This book is organized into four main parts:

Part I: Legacy provides foundational knowledge about the power grid, buildings, and transportation, which are the key sources of carbon emissions from the built environment.

Part II: Factors for Change discusses four key technologies: renewables, electric vehicles, storage, and digitalization.

Part III: The Future discusses the result of using these technologies to decarbonize legacy systems, leading to the development of smart grids, smart buildings, and smart transportation.

Part IV: An Energy Informatics Toolbox gathers some standard techniques in energy informatics, such as optimization, control, neural networks, and data analytics, and introduces them in a manner that goes beyond what is typically known by an undergraduate in Computer Science.

How to Use This Book

This book is my attempt to help the nascent community of energy informatics researchers coalesce around a community hub of knowledge with a strong curation of content. I encourage readers to help improve the book by using GitHub to send me changes in the form of pull requests or to add their (moderated) comments.

Pedagogically speaking, the book presents core concepts with intuition, then presents them again with mathematical rigour. I hope to make concepts come alive by linking them to the real world, and by interspersing the text with periodic checkpoints for readers to check their knowledge.

I hope that you enjoy reading the book!

S. Keshav

Cambridge November 2025

sk818@cam.ac.uk

# Preface {.unnumbered} <img src="images/BookConcept.pdf" alt="Book concept diagram showing the structure and organization of this textbook." style="width: 100%; max-width: 1200px;" id="fig-book-concept"> Welcome to *An Introduction to Energy Informatics*. This graduate-level textbook explores the intersection of computer science and energy systems—a critical frontier in addressing climate change and building sustainable infrastructure. Climate change is the defining challenge of our era. To meet it we need tools for monitoring and forecasting, mitigation, and adaptation. Focusing on mitigation, the two clear directions are protecting Nature to prevent emissions from land use change and decarbonizing legacy systems, the main source of carbon dioxide injection into the atmosphere. In this book, we will focus on decarbonizing three key legacy systems: the power grid, transportation, and buildings, using innovative technologies such as emission-free renewables, electric vehicles, storage, and digitalization. ## What is Energy Informatics? Energy informatics is an interdisciplinary field that applies information and communication technology (ICT), data science, and computational methods to energy systems. It encompasses the collection, analysis, and application of energy-related data to improve efficiency, reliability, and sustainability. The field has emerged from the convergence of several trends: - The digital transformation of energy systems - Growing penetration of renewable energy sources - Advancement in sensing and IoT technologies - Development of machine learning and AI techniques - Urgent need for decarbonization Energy informatics helps tackle key challenges: variability and uncertainty of renewable energy; complexity of legacy infrastructure like the power grid, with millions of components operating in real-time; decentralization, with millions of independent control points; and the imperative for sustainability. ## Goal The goal of this book is to allow someone with a background in computer science or electrical engineering to know enough about energy systems in general, and about energy systems as they are embedded in the power grid, transportation, and buildings to contribute to the mitigation of climate change. To do so, the book builds on background knowledge in mathematics, physics, modeling, analysis, simulation and AI and adds to it tools and techniques that are not normally covered in a CS degree, such as optimization, control, neural networks for physical systems, and energy data analytics. I anticipate that readers of the book might be: - Graduate students in computer science, electrical engineering, or energy systems - Researchers working at the intersection of computing and energy - Practitioners in the energy sector seeking to understand modern computational approaches - Anyone interested in how data science and computing can enable the energy transition Readers should have general familiarity with energy concepts (though we provide necessary background) and at least a freshman understanding of physics (electricity, Newton's law of cooling) and mathematics (algebra, calculus, complex numbers, systems of equations). In selecting topics, I reviewed papers published in the last five years of the ACM eEnergy conference. My goal was that someone who has read this book should have the necessary background to understand this corpus of papers. ## Plan This book is organized into four main parts: **Part I: Legacy** provides foundational knowledge about the power grid, buildings, and transportation, which are the key sources of carbon emissions from the built environment. **Part II: Factors for Change** discusses four key technologies: renewables, electric vehicles, storage, and digitalization. **Part III: The Future** discusses the result of using these technologies to decarbonize legacy systems, leading to the development of smart grids, smart buildings, and smart transportation. **Part IV: An Energy Informatics Toolbox** gathers some standard techniques in energy informatics, such as optimization, control, neural networks, and data analytics, and introduces them in a manner that goes beyond what is typically known by an undergraduate in Computer Science. ## How to Use This Book This book is my attempt to help the nascent community of energy informatics researchers coalesce around a community hub of knowledge with a strong curation of content. I encourage readers to help improve the book by using GitHub to send me changes in the form of pull requests or to add their (moderated) comments. Pedagogically speaking, the book presents core concepts with intuition, then presents them again with mathematical rigour. I hope to make concepts come alive by linking them to the real world, and by interspersing the text with periodic checkpoints for readers to check their knowledge. I hope that you enjoy reading the book! S. Keshav Cambridge November 2025 sk818@cam.ac.uk