Smart City Solutions to the Current Energy Crisis
In late August, the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine reached the six-month stage. Despite some recent successful counterattacks from the Ukrainian Defence Forces, the frontlines have shifted only marginally over the last few weeks and months. For all intents and purposes, it appears as though the conflict has shifted towards a war of attrition. With Putin not looking to back down and recently signing a decree to increase Russian military personnel numbers by 137,000 to more than 1.15 million, the end is seemingly far from sight.
The European Energy Crisis
The ripple effects of this war have been felt all across the world, from food shortage concerns in many countries in Africa to the far-reaching cost of living crisis and global economic uncertainty.
In Western Europe, on a domestic level, the most pressing concern heading into the winter is that of an energy crisis. In 2021 alone, European Union member states relied on 45% of their gas being imported from Russia, totalling an extraordinary 155 billion cubic metres of it. This dependency on cheap Russian oil and gas has left many countries in this region in a lurch and desperately looking for alternative sources of energy.
Germany, for instance, one of the countries most dependent previously on Russian energy imports, has had to act quickly in implementing an emergency plan to find new sources of energy, whilst simultaneously stocking up and storing gas for the coming winter months. Echoing the concerns of the International Energy Agency (IEA), some political leaders, such as the Belgian Energy Minister, have suggested that energy could be a source of angst and concern for as far as the next ten years:
The next five to 10 winters will be terrible if we don’t do anything. We must act at source, at European level, and work to freeze gas prices. — Tinne Van der Straeten, Belgian Energy Minister
With this being a real possibility, many across the region are understandably concerned for their livelihoods and for the financial burden they will have to bear.
This begs the question; how can individual localised regions and cities limit the impact of this energy crisis on their citizens? Whilst national government measures will be, particularly in the short-term, key in limiting the impact of an energy shortfall, wherever there is change there is an opportunity, and this is an excellent opportunity for cities and municipalities to adapt towards a more efficient, sustainable and ultimately smarter future.
Energy Solutions for Cities
The BABLE Smart Cities platform is host to a wide range of technology-based energy solutions for the city level. When implemented correctly, these can make a notable difference in reducing running and maintenance costs for both the individual citizens and the responsible municipal authorities.
Reducing Energy Bills
One such solution is Smart Lighting. This can be achieved in many ways, but always involves the replacement of standard public lighting with alternatives which help reduce running costs, whilst still delivering value-added services such as safety to the local citizens.
This solution was implemented successfully in the municipality of Glasdsaxe in Denmark, where LED lighting was installed along an important road and pathway. A crucial element of the new lighting system in Gladsaxe was to ensure that the local endangered bat population was not adversely affected by human activities.
As a result, special red LED lights were purposely chosen, a colour more suited to the bats' visual sensitivities. In this way, the new smart lighting system was able not just to reduce operational costs for the municipality, but to also ensure a more responsible human-environmental interaction and help in the preservation of biodiversity.
Improving Energy Usage and Supply
Another solution is Municipal Energy Saving Systems. As the name suggests, this can be an excellent way for cities and local authorities to reduce costs and make their energy systems efficiently run. The consumption of energy across cities, from households to public buildings and services, is often a significant source of municipal costs as well as greenhouse gas emissions.
Action plans and initiatives can be successfully carried out to improve smaller sub-systems or widescale systemic changes to help increase infrastructural energy usage and supply efficiency. This then helps reduce energy bills for both the authorities and for the citizens dependent on these energy systems.
This solution can be carried out effectively alongside the Smart Lighting solution, as seen in an example from the city of Tartu. Here, in the second largest city in Estonia, the relevant authorities were able to not just replace the over 300 previous less efficient lights with LED ones but to link these into a new smart energy-saving system. This system utilises traffic and environmental sensors alongside wireless control units, improving both energy usage efficiency and reducing operational costs, at the same time as providing citizens with all important public services.
Decreasing Energy Consumption
Building Retrofitting is also a key solution in making long-term energy cost savings. This solution can be complex and challenging due to a number of factors. Complex ownership structures and with it a multiplicity of stakeholders, diverse building typologies and planning permission regulations all play a role, to name a few.
Despite this, a variety of initiatives have shown that retrofitting is possible and that the benefits of doing so for the consumers, building inhabitants and the municipal authorities far outweigh the impediments.
An example of one of these successful initiatives is from Valladolid, Spain, where as part of the REMOURBAN project, a series of deep retrofitting actions were carried out on 19 buildings of a residential neighbourhood, helping to make the locale simultaneously more liveable, energy efficient and sustainable. The process involved, amongst other things, installing insulation in the building façades and roofs and the provision of photovoltaic solar panels, all leading to an estimated 45% reduction in energy consumption.
The energy crisis facing Western Europe is unprecedented and its impact is clear to see. However, there are a number of Smart solutions that local municipal and city authorities can implement to reduce the financial burden for themselves and for their citizens. This article has highlighted just a few of these. Most importantly, these solutions can help in limiting the impact of climate change, while also helping to remain united in solidarity with the Ukrainian people’s defiance of Russian aggression.
Want to read more about Smart City implementations? Find them on the BABLE platform!
Make sure to also take a look at our other energy-related Medium articles, and always feel free to reach out to us for any inquiry.
