The user side is the primary cause of energy consumption and carbon emissions. Besides

user behavior can directly affect the energy efficiency and carbon emissions of energy-use (EU) systems

as well as the hosting capacity to accommodate renewable energy. Therefore

more attention should be paid to the user side for driving a green and low-carbon energy transition

and issues regarding the evaluation of EU resource value and market mechanisms need to be urgently addressed. The Energy-Use Net theory proposed by the author in 2016 is an important support. First

it defines EU rights (EURs) to describe the right and responsibility of using every EU resource. A model for EUR trading and a collaborative framework between the EUR market and existing markets for energy commodities

financial derivatives

and warrants are also proposed. Value economy is utilized to drive the flexible resources of EU systems to promote green and low-carbon EU. Moreover

EUR trading involves the allocation and operation of energy resources across multiple stages

as well as mutual conversions among various forms of energy. On this basis

an energy element model

which is used as a unit for measurement and transaction settlement of EUR commodities

is established to characterize energy equivalent and value in the EUR trading. Then

through the integration of the Industrial Internet in the energy sector and the Consumer Internet

an Energy-Use Net and its friendly interaction with power grid is proposed. The proposed Energy-Use Net uses energy elements as the basic circulation units

to achieve energy efficiency improvement and carbon reduction

thereby promoting the green and low-carbon transition of the whole energy system. The key technologies and business modes for the Energy-Use Net based on energy elements are proposed

pointing out future research directions. Finally

the assessment of energy element attributes and the processing of the EUR trading are expounded by case analysis

which demonstrates that the theoretical method proposed in this paper could fully tap into and liberate the potential of flexibility resources on the user side

thereby facilitating green and low-carbon energy utilization.