Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy Future in the International and European Legal Order

This paper examines smart grids under the International and European legal order, that being the rules set by the IEA, the IRENA, the UN, the OECD, the CoE, the Energy Community and the EU. It starts with identifying the legal notion of smart grids and proceeds with specifying their core function, while depicting the purpose of their deployment. It then evidences the insoluble connection between smart grids and achieving the mitigation objective of the Paris Agreement. Hence, it establishes that the deployment of smart grid technologies is crucial for meeting the goal of a sustainable energy future. Thereafter it addresses legal issues arising from their deployment, those being the need for regulation and the right to access to and to process data generated from the operation thereof.