The digital transformation is already influencing many aspects of daily life. Also, in industry, digitalization has become an essential part of business and research. Digitalization measures offer possibilities to increase the productivity and flexibility of an industrial process and thus,improving its efficiency, saving energy and reducing costs. Moreover, digitalization can con-tribute to the transition towards renewable supplied and sustainable production. Nevertheless, to benefit from these promising outcomes, there are still some challenges to overcome.

Naturally grown industrial establishments have created a heterogeneous landscape of technologies, which impedes a straightforward implementation of digitalization methods and complicates data handling. Although the term "digitalization" is on everyone’s lips, especially energy-intensive industries still lack a profound basis and potential energy savings are often not considered in this context. On the one hand, we identified that interfaces between different digitalization measures and existing industrial technologies are significant issues. On the other hand, the availability and quality of (big) data, which is further dependent on available sensors,affects all analyzed measures and acts as a critical element and enabler for a successful implementation. More than that, there is a need to emphasize the potential of digitalization measures to reduce energy and emissions in the industry. Thus, it is essential to clarify which digitalization measures already exist, how and where they can be applied, what their benefits are and what other technologies or methods they require. These are the tasks carried out in the course of Annex 18.