Smart Cities are key in increasing efficiency – bylined article by Frans Vreeswijk

(Excerpt of the article, which appears in the Official magazine of the 42nd G7 summit, 26-27 May 2016, Climate Change in the New Economy)
26 May 2016

…Electric power is the driving force of today’s cities. No electric power = no data collection = no Smart City.

By 2050, 66% of the world’s population is expected to be living in urban areas. Today cities consume around 70% of all energy produced globally, and they generate 70% of world GDP. The challenge will be to supply these populations with basic resources like safe food, clean water and sufficient energy, while also ensuring overall economic, social and environmental sustainability.

A systems approach
Cities are giant systems with countless subsystems which all depend on electric power and hardware to move people and things, collect data and exchange information. It is impossible to build an efficient urban infrastructure without reliable energy access.

However, today’s cities need to substantially increase the efficiency in which they operate and use their resources. Major efficiency improvements can be achieved by horizontally interconnecting individual systems such as electricity, water, sanitation and waste management, transportation, security, environmental monitoring or weather intelligence. This approach gives increased information sharing and coordination and helps manage incidents in one sector that impact the others. It also offers considerable opportunities for cost-reduction…

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