Smart Grid Observer


Smart Cities

Empowering Smart Cities Toward Net Zero Emissions
August 5, 2021 | International Energy Agency (IEA)
The report builds on extensive consultations with over 125 leading experts and organisations, and presents case studies from 100 cities in 40 countries. The examples illustrate the wide range of opportunities and solutions that can help city-level authorities make full use of efficient and smart energy systems.    more

Jacobs, Peachtree Corners, and Qualcomm Collaborate to Deploy Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything Technology in Georgia Smart City
June 2, 2021
Jacobs, Peachtree Corners and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. this week announced joint efforts to deploy end-to-end smart solutions in one of the nation's first smart city environments powered by connected vehicle technology and infrastructure. As a part of the working relationship, Qualcomm Technologies serves as ecosystem enabler by providing technology solutions, while Jacobs manages the installation commission project delivery. The program aims to demonstrate the continued momentum of smart cities and spaces, with Peachtree Corners serving as a model for other municipalities as they look to deploy smart solutions and programs.    more

Johnson Controls and the City of La Crosse Launch Multi-phase Plan to Generate $11 Million in Cost Savings
May 31, 2021
The plans are made possible through a performance contract, a modern funding approach that transfers the risk to Johnson Controls by using operational energy cost savings over time to help fund the improvements. In total, over $9 million in investments will be made without diverting from the city's capital budget. In addition to the performance contract the City of La Crosse leveraged locally available grants totaling over $360,000.    more

Puget Sound Energy Selects Landis+Gyr for Smart Street Lighting Controls
April 1, 2021
Using Landis+Gyr's Gridstream AMI network, PSE plans to deploy 25,000 street light controllers over the next five years. With the ability to measure consumption using the billing-grade metrology in the street light controller, PSE will be able to more effectively gauge the energy being consumed and also use adaptive controls to lower power consumption in identified locations and during specific times of day.    more

Renewables in Cities 2021 Global Status Report, Second Edition, is Released
March 31, 2021 | REN21
The Renewables in Cities Global Status Report (REC) series provides an overview of the status, trends and developments of renewable energy in hundreds of cities, ranging from mega-cities to small and medium-sized cities and towns. With more than 330 data contributors and peer reviewers and over 30 individual interviews from around the world, the report is endorsed by an Advisory Committee of more than 20 organisations, including major renewable energy players and city networks.    view report

CPS Energy and the City of San Antonio Forge Smart City Agreement with AT&T and Itron
December 10, 2020
As part of this SmartSA agreement, CPS Energy and the City of San Antonio launched a smart streetlight sensor pilot program. Smart streetlight sensors can provide near real-time operational performance of the utility's assets, while enhancing service levels for their customers. Additionally, the City of San Antonio will leverage these smart streetlights to test sensors focused on air quality, temperature, ambient noise, parking and flooding.    more

Mississippi Power, Southern Company Announce Smart Neighborhood Collaboration in Lauderdale County
November 18, 2020
Mississippi Power and Southern Company announced this week a partnership to build the first smart neighborhood in the world exclusively featuring the Tesla Solar Roof in Lauderdale County. Enzor Place homes will also feature Powerwall batteries, energy efficient equipment and appliances, and smart home automation.    more

U.S. Department of Energy Provides $65 Million for Grid-Interactive Efficient Building Communities
October 14, 2020
America's 125 million homes and commercial buildings currently use almost 40% of U.S. energy, 74% of its electricity, and account for the great majority of peak electricity demand. Connected communities can leverage the latest advancements in building science, like state-of-the-art sensors, controls, and analytics, to more flexibly manage and deploy grid-scale energy efficiency and distributed energy resources.    more

E.ON Shows Possibilities of Smart Streetlights
June 25, 2020
The so-called smart poles in the German city of Essen not only provide light but can also serve as charging points for electric cars, enable intelligent parking space management via sensor technology, collect data on air quality or provide the area with fast Internet access via W-Lan routers.    more

SMUD Releases Mapping Tool That Identifies Areas in Need Based Upon Key Indicators
May 6, 2020
SMUD recently released a new mapping tool that uses collective data to identify areas in Sacramento County most in need. The map includes a number of GIS layers including education, tree canopy, EV charging, food deserts, and public transportation information in order to maximize and improve the equity of regional decision-making.    more

Itron and KeyBank Launch Financing Program for Utilities and Cities to Acquire Technology Solutions
May 5, 2020
Itron has introduced a financing program backed by Key Equipment Finance that removes funding as a barrier for smart city and smart community programs. In addition, Key Government Finance, a subsidiary of KeyBank and a leader in municipal funding, is providing financing for Itron's municipality customers in the U.S. for smart city technologies and services.    more

U.S. Department of Energy Releases Request for Information on Potential Funding for Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings in Connected Communities
March 30, 2020
A connected community is a group of grid-interactive efficient buildings with diverse, flexible end-use equipment that collectively work to maximize building and grid efficiency without compromising occupant needs and comfort. Connected communities leverage smart technology, distributed energy resources, flexible loads, and grid integration to cost-effectively reduce energy use and peak demand while improving the occupant experience.    more

Itron to Deploy Intelligent Streetlight Solution for the City of Stockholm
March 6, 2020
SLV is a smart city central management software application designed to deliver advanced asset management, analytics and control capabilities. Itron reports that SLV has been chosen by more than 500 communities to control more than 3 million intelligent devices worldwide.    more


U.S. Department of Energy Invests $74 Million in Building and Construction Technologies and Innovations
February 12, 2020
The grid interactive efficient building projects will make advances in technologies to link buildings to one another across the internet and the power grid, which would enable a greater degree of flexibility over conventional buildings to reschedule operations to periods of the day when energy is cheaper and more efficient to use.    more

Delivering on the Promise of Smart Cities: From Vision to Outcomes
February 6, 2020
A new white paper from Navigant Research examines the challenges cities face as they evolve their smart city programs and highlights cities that are addressing those issues successfully. It also provides guidance for cities looking to accelerate the adoption of smart city solutions.    more

Trilliant and MultiTech to Deliver Transformative Solutions for Industrial Internet of Things and Smart Cities
January 30, 2020
The partnership brings the systems and sector expertise of Trilliant and the industrial communications hardware of MultiTech to enable aggregation of data from any sensor, actuator or smart device. The result is an IIoT gateway, bringing centralized data management across all cloud-based platforms for global IIoT, smart energy, and smart city applications.    more

Itron Invites Innovators to Participate in Smart Community Challenge
January 28, 2020
Itron is calling for hardware and software vendors to submit their products and solutions to the Itron Smart Community Challenge. This challenge follows Itron's 2019 Smart City Challenge, which sought IoT solutions for challenges in London and Glasgow. Participants are invited to join this virtual IoT accelerator program, which utilizes Itron's open platform to create breakthrough solutions for challenges designed by participating utilities.    more

A New Way to Measure Mobility Potential of Cities
October 25, 2019
NREL has developed a new comprehensive nMetric to quantify the efficiency of transportation systems while taking time, affordability, and energy use into consideration.    more


Smart Energy City Project: An Australian Perspective to a Large DER Intensive Microgrid
March 6, 2019
Indra and Monash University are collaborating to develop, implement and test a distribution management platform across the Clayton campus of the Monash University in Victoria, to control a grid-connected Microgrid comprising a variety of distributed energy resources (DER).    more

More Than 100 American Cities Charge Toward a Renewable Future
February 28, 2019
To help U.S. cities meet - or beat - their renewable energy goals, the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), World Resources Institute (WRI), and the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) have kicked off a joint effort to help cities procure over 2.8 gigawatts of renewable capacity - more than the total existing solar capacity in Nevada, Florida or Texas.    more

The Internet of Things Security Institute (IoTSI) releases IoT Security Framework for Smart Cities and Critical Infrastructure
February 21, 2019
The Internet of Things Security Institute (IoTSI) announced today that it has released an IoT Security Framework for Smart Cities and Critical Infrastructure. Alan Mihalic President of the IoT Security Institute says the objective of the IoTSI 's to provide the cyber and privacy frameworks that can be implemented from the base build through to the build completion.    more

Centrica to Expand New Home Energy Management Offers
February 20, 2019
The company is working to integrate solar, battery and heat pump technology into its customer offer and has estimated that the co-location of domestic battery storage alongside today's solar installations alone could enable over 4.5GW of flexible power capacity, one and a half times more than a new nuclear plant.    more

ComEd and Itron to Accelerate Development of Smart Cities in Illinois Through Smart Streetlight Program
January 30, 2019
Itron will connect and manage up to 140,000 municipal smart streetlights across ComEd's service territory, leveraging Itron's multi-application IPv6 networking platform that ComEd is using for a variety of smart grid applications.    more

Energy Department Announces $42 Million in Project Selections for Innovative Buildings Research
January 29, 2019
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced up to $42 million in project selections to support early-stage research and development (R&D) of innovative residential and commercial building technologies for energy efficiency.    more

NREL Research Proves Switchable Solar Window Works, Now Focus Moves to Making it Work Better
January 21, 2019
A year after Lance Wheeler attracted international attention for his research detailing a window that could both darken and generate electricity, he's starting over almost from scratch.    more

2019 Predictions - Smart Cities and Smart Spaces
January 15, 2019
As we forge ahead in 2019, the smart city industry will continue to develop and mature as the Internet of Things (IoT) become more and more connected. Gartner noted that smart spaces will evolve in five dimensions in 2019: openness, connectedness, coordination, intelligence and scope - meaning individual technologies for these spaces are working together to create a collaborative, interactive environment. However, the success criteria for use of technology is often defined by the user experience.    more