As people gravitate toward cities — the urban population could double by 2050 — our insatiable appetite for energy grows exponentially. From an environmental perspective, urbanization may prove a beneficial trend; there are, after all, many advantages to having large populations concentrated in small areas. Still, reimagining cities that can provide a high quality of life while using existing resources more efficiently is challenging, and will only become more so.
Energy is quickly becoming the core concern for many major urban development plans. We’ve already seen substantial changes in the way energy policies have affected everything from real estate to transportation. Roof-mounted solar panels, for example, once considered unsightly, expensive and inefficient, have become a must-have feature for many developers and home buyers. In fact, 53 percent of new electricity capacity built in the first half of 2014 has come from solar panels.
Similarly, while electric cars were once luxury toys for the rich and famous, the number of public charging stations grew from just shy of 2,000 in January 2011 to more than 20,000 in May 2013.
Municipal services — such as law enforcement, transportation or sanitation — depend on the safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy availability. Given that our supply could come under pressure just as our demand for it grows, it becomes increasingly important that we know as much as possible about our energy consumption — how much we use, where we use it, when we use it and why we use it — to prevent interruption of citizen services.
Big data analytics could radically change the way we use energy and help us gain insights into the way energy should best be distributed — a true revolution in energy efficiency. Since big buildings consume the lion’s share of the energy, water and other resources, figuring out ways to maximize their efficiency has a double benefit: It cuts energy use while also improving the city’s resilience and resource management.
Right now, if a major arctic blast is expected in New York City, and we know the grid could be strained by residents’ heating needs, officials might issue a general plea that everyone use their appliances in moderation, if at all, to avoid a blackout. This may be helpful, but if we had a more accurate forecast of precisely when the weather event will hit and exactly what our energy requirements would be, we could devise a strategy that would allow people to use their electric and gas heaters without straining the grid.
This insight may allow for utilities to consider providing financial incentives to major energy consumers, such as department stores or office buildings, which could make the difference between a brownout and a reliable power stream. This monetary reward will pay off tenfold, and be much less costly than repairing the grid and their reputation with consumers suffering interruptions.
We can collect this sort of data with smart meters, a digital meter system that opens the floodgates to an ocean of data about who uses how much electricity and when. Coupled with any number of variables, such as the weather, street traffic, sports events, and so on, we can more accurately predict energy consumption patterns and infrastructures’ failures. As it stands now, most utilities only become aware of power outages when residents call to complain.
Using a smart meter system would allow utilities to see precisely when power is cut off, the cause of the failure and how to repair it — all before they get the first call from anyone affected by the outage. In some cases, analytics will help utilities and city managers predict an outage before it happens and mitigate the risk by diverting energy or taking other timely actions.
This may sound like a fantastical vision of the future that will never be realized, but the fact is that we can’t afford to maintain the status quo. In a recent IBM survey, 81 percent of energy industry executives said that by 2030, “technology progress” will be the most important external force for the industry. We’re talking about every facet of the business, including the refining process and accounting. If we don’t make these changes now, our demands for energy will outstrip our supply.
Energy is the backbone of life. Without it, cities and their many services will be not be dependable, and reliability is at the core of why we are seeing such tremendous growth in cities. If we want to live in a truly intelligent system of a "smart city," we need to be more thoughtful about how we generate, distribute and consume energy.
This means rethinking every aspect of urban design, from architecture to transportation. Data analytics will play a critical role in many of the coming changes that will continue to usher in the age of smart cities.
