Models of radial electric field formation are discussed and compared with the results of numerical simulations from fluid transport codes and Monte Carlo codes. A comparison of the fluid and Monte Carlo codes is presented. A conclusion is arrived at that all the simulations do not predict any bifurcation of the electric field, i.e. no bifurcation of poloidal rotation from low to high Mach number values is obtained. In most of the simulations, the radial electric field is close to the neoclassical electric field. The deviation from neoclassical electric field at the separatrix due to the existence of a transitional viscous layer is discussed. Scalings for the shear of the poloidal rotation are checked versus simulation results. It is demonstrated that assuming the critical shear to be of the order of 105 s−1, it is possible to obtain a L–H transition power scaling close to that observed in the experiment. The dependence of the threshold on the magnetic field direction, pellet injection, aspect ratio and other factors are discussed on the basis of existing simulations. Transport codes where transport coefficients depend on the turbulence level and scenario simulations of L–H transition are analysed. However, the details of gyrofluid and gyrokinetic modelling should be discussed elsewhere. Simulations of internal transport barrier (ITB) formation are discussed as well as factors responsible for ITB formation.