But, following the emergence of the internet, a less outlandish vision for a connected urban utopia has risen to prominence – the “smart city”. The concept has generated a lot of buzz and, as a result, it’s easy to think it belongs on the pages of a novel, rather than in government white papers and infrastructure proposals. At its core, a smart city is simply an urban environment that deploys data-gathering technologies to help citizens, companies and policymakers optimise their use of resources. In its definition, US technology conglomerate Cisco says smart cities adopt “scalable solutions that take advantage of information and communications technology (ICT) to increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and enhance quality of life”.
A win for the climate
If deployed properly, networks and connected technologies could ensure that the metropolises of the 21st century are environmentally sustainable. As the pressure to adhere to international climate targets mounts, planners and politicians should recognise the potential to enhance carbon-reduction initiatives with ICT.
“The renewable infrastructure within the smart city itself will primarily consist of rooftop solar and battery storage, and one of the most important roles for the Internet of Things will be to help manage these distributed resources via two-way communication, analytics, and automated demand response,” predicted Marlene Motyka, Deloitte’s global renewable energy leader.
The sustainable city of the future – powered as much as possible by local renewable energy – will need a smart grid capable of managing variable power supply. In such a system, solar panels will be installed across communities alongside batteries that store the generated power. These devices will be able to “talk” to the grid: supplying and retaining stored power in line with fluctuations in demand.
This is the logic behind Tesla’s renewable energy ecosystem, in which the company’s rooftop solar panels generate energy to be stored in a home battery. In turn, the battery makes electricity available during peak energy-use periods to enable home owners to save money.
The role of utility companies must inevitably evolve as homes and municipal buildings transform into tiny power stations. Rather than being power suppliers, electricity firms will come to take on the responsibilities of an energy network administrator – working with community generators to ensure decentralised microgrids function in concert.
Role of utilities
“Utilities will need to help ensure that the distributed energy sources are strategically sited, proactively managed and flexibly aggregated, so that they can enhance rather than disrupt the grid,” said Motyka. “They will need to coordinate with numerous stakeholders, including city governments, real-estate companies, technology companies, automakers, and customers owning distributed energy resources that must be integrated into the system.”
Many of the microgrid initiatives that have been piloted to date focused on improving the sustainability of homes and community living spaces. However, it’s important to remember that commercial buildings, especially large offices, are also ripe for a different kind of digital disruption. Building automation and control systems are already using sensors and two-way flows of information to control the function of key building systems, including electrical systems, lighting, heating and cooling.
The Internet of Things is now so advanced, and data about energy use is so readily gathered, that it’s possible to create a “digital twin” of any given building. These models offer a full virtual representation of how an asset is performing, giving operators a unified picture of how previously disparate systems are functioning. This means lights will be turned on by motion and dimmed or brightened according to sunlight conditions. It means offices can be maintained at a comfortable temperature – thereby saving money and energy. The more connected a building is, the more operators can know about how it works, and the more efficient it will become.
Benefits of connectivity
According to Michael Mulquin, chair of the Smart Cities Systems Committee at the International Electrotechnical Commission, it’s important that companies and city officials start installing sensor technologies across the built environment. Much like the advent of the internet itself, there are likely to be unforeseen benefits of connecting city systems to a wider information highway.
“Smart cities don’t just have lots of smart domains, such as smart energy, smart buildings and smart transport,” Mulquin said. “A smart city tries to link everything together and share data across different domains, so citizens and decision makers can get a much richer and broader picture of what’s happening.”
Transforming today’s metropolises into fully-networked smart cities will require planning and investment. Governments that take this leap of faith will almost certainly find that their cities are more sustainable, and more liveable, too.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.