Smart Energy & Cities

• Discussing smart metering technologies in consumer water, gas and electricity monitoring and the new emerging business models in this sector.
• The influence of government led schemes worldwide in adoption of smart metering – mandatory vs voluntary.
• What will be the role of technologies like Blockchain be for the future of smart meters?
• Who is benefiting most from smart metering tech? The consumer or the energy provider?

• Comparing smart grids across all scales, from microgrids inside mixed energy use buildings and the home to country wide smart grids.
• What are the big benefits of implementing smart grids for distributed energy resources such as those generating, storing and using energy? What role does supply and demand play within smart and micro grids and how are these demands managed?
• Using smart grids to track and automate distribution of energy across these resources and increase operational efficiency.
• How can smart grids help improve the safety of power distribution – predictive maintenance and beyond.

Renewable energy sources such as wind turbines and solar farms are going to be a key part of our future.  How will the IoT impact their adoption, and what role will data play in this? Analysing historic and current meteorological data can help provide accurate forecasting to ensure less downtime by renewable energy sources, and also provide important operational intelligence to energy grids as to when they need to redistribute other sources to their consumers.  This talk will also address future directions and advances storage technologies and the important role in plays in implementing smart renewable technology for everyone.

• Analysing the benefits that IOT sensors and data analytics can bring to water and gas companies.
• Discussing pipe condition, flow and pressure monitoring, leak detection and predictive maintenance.
• How can utility monitoring technologies improve the service delivered to customers?
• The role of this new technology in emergency situations.

A leader from the world of IoT will share their case studies from the energy industry, showcasing how they have helped some of the world’s biggest energy providers to increase efficiency and create new business models using real life case studies from across the globe. 

As cities are responsible for two thirds of the worlds overall energy consumption and around 70% of all greenhouse gas emissions, global regulation standards are being called for. This has resulted in the development of global private-public partnerships. This talk will look at, how these are set to mutually benefit both cities, their citizens, and their respective commercial ventures.

What issues do cities around the Globe need to consider when wanting to make their cities smart?

• Funding and potential ROI.
• Political cycles and the role of government
• Interoperability with other cities, states and countries.
• Outcomes for citizens, both short term and long term.

Due to its long range and low power requirements, LoRaWAN is being touted as the perfect connectivity solution for smart cities, being used to connect everything from smart lighting to environmental monitoring. This talk will address the positives and negatives of this type of connectivity over other options (such as 5G) and give some real life examples of projects from across the world successfully using LoRaWAN connectivity.

This talk will address how technologies such as smart and virtual grids, virtual powerplants and connected renewables are being used in today’s cities to manage energy usage.  Discussions will include the challenges and benefits in managing energy across the city such as the complex nature of the energy systems across different scales (home vs street vs entire city).  What is the role of utility companies within this changing ecosystem and how can renewable energies be incorporated?

• What are the key KPIs modern smart cities need to monitor?
• Utilising a central IT Infrastructure – what role will data collection and analytics play?
• Estimating how energy management will reduce wastage and cut global emissions in areas such as electricity, water and waste management vs. monitoring actual outcomes.
• Improving quality of life for residents – How will citizen participation impact a smart city’s success?