This year the evolution of the strategy and plans implementation in order to combat climate change through energy efficiency measures has been confronted with a new challenge, namely the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in all areas of life. At a time when the expansion of IoT use through platforms to monitor, scale and optimise processes specific to urban agglomerations and industrial centres, the digitisation of the energy sector has acquired a new dimension and a central place in the sphere of priorities for the coagulation of the financial efforts. The article presents the status of the implementation of this objective prior to the pandemic period, the new conditions and priorities imposed on the basis of changes in electricity consumption and the opportunities for the development of IoT-based systems for the energy sector. At present, some of the major challenges to be addressed to smart technologies are: accelerating the pace of deployment, achieving the mix of energy from traditional and renewable sources, securing energy systems and networks in order to resist in the situation of potential variable energy flows or cyber attacks.