MUSE®, the Urban Space Management Platform, Leads a Digital Revolution in Dijon

Thanks to the collaborative urban space management platform MUSE® developed by EDF’s subsidiary Citelum, towns can now list all of their connected equipment and manage operations undertaken by different service providers with the greatest of transparency.

Dijon Metropole, a gathering of 24 municipalities for 250,000 people in France, is using the MUSE® platform for its urban space connected management. The platform is connecting all the city’s actors to control and manage in real-time all of the municipalities’ various equipment (street lighting, traffic light systems, CCTV cameras etc.). On the platform, the city’s public services have access to information about all the infrastructures of the municipality, and can efficiently plan maintenance interventions, optimize cost management and inform their partners on the progress of their work. Thanks to MUSE®, citizens can contact the city’s public services from their mobile phone and signal any event on the streets requiring quick and coordinated management.

The platform meets the ambitions of Dijon Métropole regarding coordination, equipment management, inhabitants’ safety and urban attractiveness development.

Smart Meters improve Customer Services and Grid Operation in China

In its new development strategy, State Grid aims to become a world-leading energy internet enterprise, by employing advanced Information & Communication technologies and “Internet + Energy” innovation.

In China, by the end of 2017, the coverage rate of automatic information collection by State Grid smart meters was over 99%, and 70% of customers chose to pay their bills by direct debit, online payment, smart phone apps and telephone. 3.3 million households were covered by “N in One” meters, which provide integrated metering services for electricity, water, gas and heat. Smart meters improve service and billing and also system operation and grid planning.

Demand Response Provides Grid Flexibility, Stability and More Efficient Use of Power Infrastructure

In August 2017 Enel finalized the acquisition of EnerNOC, the world’s largest provider of demand response and energy intelligence software. EnerNOC partners with enterprises to reduce costs, manage risks, increase sustainability, and maximize the value of emerging energy technologies through customized energy management strategies.

EnerNOC is the global leader in demand-side flexibility services, providing large energy users access to more demand response and demand management programs worldwide than any other provider. In addition to its flexibility solutions, EnerNOC’s technology-enabled advisory solutions help large energy users create value through strategic energy procurement, energy management, and utility bill management software as well as services.

EnerNOC has more than 8,000 customers, 14,000 sites under management and a total of 6.2 GW of demand response capacity currently managed all around the world. Demand response programs are conceived for large energy customers, such as manufacturing facilities, data center and commercial real estate companies that are willing to adjust their energy consumption by either reducing or increasing their power consumption to stabilize the grid and earn money.

Demand response provides grid flexibility, stability and more efficient use of power infrastructure in order to help maintain electricity prices as low as possible for all consumers and postpone investments on the grid. Enel X’s demand response commercial and industrial clients are paid for the flexibility they provide to the system by staying ready in the event of a grid emergency and they obtain additional payments when they are effectively dispatched.

China is Exploring Smart Cities and Smart Industrial Parks

In its 12th Five-Year Specific Plan, China planned to construct 5-10 demonstration projects for smart cities and 50 demonstration projects for smart industrial parks.

By the end of 2015, State Grid had built 32 smart communities or smart buildings in Beijing, Chongqing and Hebei. Smart communities and smart buildings not only created an interface between public utilities and consumers, but also enabled interaction between buildings and consumers. Based on the interactive processing of information, both public utilities and consumers can control electricity utilization in air conditioning units, electric boilers, lighting and smart appliances, improving comfort. Moreover, based on detailed online and off-line data and behavior analysis, electricity suppliers can provide consumers with advice on how to improve the efficiency of their energy use. 

How New York City Built an Intelligently-Controlled, Distributed Digital Power Grid

New York City is one of the most energy-intensive urban environments in the world. As loads grow over time, different networks become constrained. The Marcus Garvey Village microgrid developed by DEN – Demand Energy (Enel Group) is a perfect example of how a major city can build an intelligently controlled distributed digital power grid, provide local resiliency and other grid-supporting capabilities. The owners of the 625-apartment Marcus Garvey Village are deploying a first-of-its-kind microgrid integrating solar PV, storage and a fuel cell with Demand Energy Network’s intelligent software to manage these distributed energy resources.

A key aspect of the project is the ability of DEN.OS to ensure that the Village self-consumes all the energy it generates, without exporting to the grid. In particular, the Garvey Village Apartments Microgrid includes 400 kW of solar PV, a 400 kW fuel cell and 300 kW/1.2 MWh of energy storage (fully managed by DEN.OS). Furthermore, the project has won the prestigious ESNA Innovation Award for distributed storage.

Electrifying cars makes sense … just ask the people of Québec, Canada

The province of Québec, Canada, has close to 5 million cars for the 8 million inhabitants living in its vast territory. The road transportation sector accounts for 34.5% of its carbon emissions (2017 data), with virtually all of the fossil fuels used to power it being imported. Vehicles also contribute to reduced air quality, particularly in urban areas. The City of Montreal estimates that 45% of particulate matter in its air–a major pollutant–is due to transportation.

 

Electricity can get the job done

In the past few years, however, there has been a shift in consumers’ habits and more and more people are opting for electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. The number of these types of vehicles on the road more than tripled from 2017 to 2019, increasing from just over 19,000 to almost 63,000.

The government of Québec has put into place an ambitious Action Plan which targets having 100,000 electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by the end of 2020, with a corresponding reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 150,000 tons. As an incentive to citizens, it provides subsidies for the purchase of a new vehicle and the installation of a charging station at home or at work.

GSEP member Hydro-Québec has been working hard to facilitate this transition through the deployment of the Electric Circuit, the largest public car-charging network in Canada. As of May 31, 2020 it operated 2546 charging stations (including 311 fast-charge stations) in Québec and Eastern Ontario. With such a vast network available, drivers can easily make the switch to electric vehicles without worrying about their battery running empty. And since 99.8% of electricity in Québec is from low-carbon sources, converting transportation to electricity makes perfect sense!

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