13.3.4.6 Smart Energy Management
Energy and resource efficiency are major challenges for Smart City projects,
allowing cities to become less dependent on fossil fuels and to protect the natural
environment (Euan-Smith and Pereira 2016). Energy performance contracts (EPC),
PPP agreements, and energy policy planning may facilitate the implementation of
energy efficiency measures (Calandrino 2017).
In Europe, investment in smart city solutions is driven by EU energy efficiency
targets. 55 of Europe’s 157 Smart City projects focus on energy and resource
efficiency (Euan-Smith and Pereira 2016). Many European countries have begun
to test Smart Grid technology as part of smart city developments. In Aspern, for
example, a sustainable Smart City is created on the site of a former airfield outside
Vienna – a project involving a joint venture between the City of Vienna and the city’s
utility companies Wien Energie, Wiener Netze, and Siemens (Euan-Smith and
Pereira 2016). By 2028, this area will have ca. 8500 apartments and a commercial
campus. Energy-efficient technologies like Smart Grid and smart building solutions
will also be expanded to other cities to be tested (Euan-Smith and Pereira 2016).
In Asia, several countries, above all China and Japan, have announced investment packages for Smart City Development in favor of energy and resource efficiency. Since the Tohoku earthquake and nuclear disaster in 2011, Japan has shifted
its focus from nuclear energy to renewable energy sources and Smart Grid technology to protect its cities from the mass power outages and rolling blackouts to make
them more disaster resilient (Euan-Smith and Pereira 2016). 15 Chinese cities share
knowledge and technical capabilities in Smart City solutions with 15 European
partner cities, promoting the development of global Smart Cities to optimize energy
efficiency and air quality (Euan-Smith and Pereira 2016).
In America, the Envision America program has the potential to increase the
quantity of Smart City projects in the USA significantly, using the US $160 million
funding package for numerous Smart City projects. Corporate partners involved in
the program are, inter alia, GE, Qualcomm, Itron, Landis þ Gyr, and Microsoft
(Euan-Smith and Pereira 2016).
Home Energy Management as a Service (HEMaaS), designed on the basis of a
Q-Learning algorithm running on a neuronal network, is an innovative, selflearning, and adaptive method recommended by some Smart City experts, offering
an adaptable, vital, and resource-efficient platform for domestic energy management. This allows urban districts with large residential buildings to substantially
reduce overall energy consumption by lowering or postponing their energy needs
during busy periods (Mahapatra et al. 2017).
Innovative solutions like the ones within the European Innovation Partnership
on Smart Cities and Communities platform might be suitable to address the challenge of managing energy production, distribution, and consumption in European
cities (EU 2018). The Nobel Project, funded by the EU with nearly 2 Mio €, had
developed and tested the feasibility of such a solution by building an ICT-based
energy brokerage system, allowing individual energy consumers to communicate
13 The Role of Smart Cities for the Realization of. . .
223
Energy and resource efficiency are major challenges for Smart City projects,
allowing cities to become less dependent on fossil fuels and to protect the natural
environment (Euan-Smith and Pereira 2016). Energy performance contracts (EPC),
PPP agreements, and energy policy planning may facilitate the implementation of
energy efficiency measures (Calandrino 2017).
In Europe, investment in smart city solutions is driven by EU energy efficiency
targets. 55 of Europe’s 157 Smart City projects focus on energy and resource
efficiency (Euan-Smith and Pereira 2016). Many European countries have begun
to test Smart Grid technology as part of smart city developments. In Aspern, for
example, a sustainable Smart City is created on the site of a former airfield outside
Vienna – a project involving a joint venture between the City of Vienna and the city’s
utility companies Wien Energie, Wiener Netze, and Siemens (Euan-Smith and
Pereira 2016). By 2028, this area will have ca. 8500 apartments and a commercial
campus. Energy-efficient technologies like Smart Grid and smart building solutions
will also be expanded to other cities to be tested (Euan-Smith and Pereira 2016).
In Asia, several countries, above all China and Japan, have announced investment packages for Smart City Development in favor of energy and resource efficiency. Since the Tohoku earthquake and nuclear disaster in 2011, Japan has shifted
its focus from nuclear energy to renewable energy sources and Smart Grid technology to protect its cities from the mass power outages and rolling blackouts to make
them more disaster resilient (Euan-Smith and Pereira 2016). 15 Chinese cities share
knowledge and technical capabilities in Smart City solutions with 15 European
partner cities, promoting the development of global Smart Cities to optimize energy
efficiency and air quality (Euan-Smith and Pereira 2016).
In America, the Envision America program has the potential to increase the
quantity of Smart City projects in the USA significantly, using the US $160 million
funding package for numerous Smart City projects. Corporate partners involved in
the program are, inter alia, GE, Qualcomm, Itron, Landis þ Gyr, and Microsoft
(Euan-Smith and Pereira 2016).
Home Energy Management as a Service (HEMaaS), designed on the basis of a
Q-Learning algorithm running on a neuronal network, is an innovative, selflearning, and adaptive method recommended by some Smart City experts, offering
an adaptable, vital, and resource-efficient platform for domestic energy management. This allows urban districts with large residential buildings to substantially
reduce overall energy consumption by lowering or postponing their energy needs
during busy periods (Mahapatra et al. 2017).
Innovative solutions like the ones within the European Innovation Partnership
on Smart Cities and Communities platform might be suitable to address the challenge of managing energy production, distribution, and consumption in European
cities (EU 2018). The Nobel Project, funded by the EU with nearly 2 Mio €, had
developed and tested the feasibility of such a solution by building an ICT-based
energy brokerage system, allowing individual energy consumers to communicate
13 The Role of Smart Cities for the Realization of. . .
223