Smart cities. integration junctions for networked urban infrastructures? Dr. Ralitsa Hiteva

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1 Smart cities integration junctions for networked urban infrastructures? Dr. Ralitsa Hiteva Sussex Energy Group, SPRU, University of Sussex 2 nd March 2015

2 Networked infrastructure What is infrastructure? Why does infrastructure matter? How does infrastructure contribute to sustainability? Networked infrastructures: made possible an unprecedented degree of socio-technological change, serve as transmission belts for national policies unevenlybind spaces together across cities, regions, nations, and international boundaries, creating in the processspecific material and social dynamics within and between these spaces(amin and Graham1998) are said to interconnect (parts of) thesespaces and mediate the multiple connections and disconnections within and between them (Grahamand Marvin, 2001). embody congealed social interests, (Bijker, 1993) and can be used by institutions, companiesand individualsto extend their influence in time and spaces beyond the here and now (Curry, 1998,) and maintain specific socio-technical geometries of power (Massey, 1993).

3 Infrastructure interdependencies

4 Infrastructure interdependencies Are responsible for a range of growing risks (resilience, uninterrupted supply of services), uncertainties (achieving long terms targets) and opportunities (low carbon living) Growing interdependencies and complexity (due to liberalisation and increasingly wide range of stakeholder groups involved in negotiating the trade-offs between multiple objectives) partly due to growing importance of the electricity and ICT sectors for the management of other sectors, and shared objectives of environmental protection. HOWEVER, Infrastructure systems can be locked into silo-based governance arrangements, designed so that multiple regulating actors operate at different levels within each sector

5 Socio-technical regimes, networks and transitions Infrastructure sectors as socio-technical regimes A socio-technical regime comprises the network of actors and social groups; the formal, cognitive, and normative rules that guide the activity of actors; as well as the material and technical artefacts and infrastructures (Geels 2006). In socio-technical regimes technical systems are embedded within the wider societal context and constitute a seamless web of interaction between technical and non-technical components. Complementarity between ICT, electricity and transport regimes has intensified in recent times because of environmental (climate change), economic (oil prices and ICT markets) and cultural (value/behaviour change) pressures; as well as the proliferation of binding concepts, such as smart grids; smart cities, and low carbon vehicles (Raven, 2007).

6 Low Carbon Transitions The multitude of intentional changes to the material and policy landscapes of energy which aim to lower the amount of carbon dioxide emissions released in the atmosphere as a result from the processes of energy productions, transmission, distribution and use The top down approach A rapid systemic change, along a well marked pathway Transitions are directed and purposeful The bottom up approach A local issue addressed through community mobilization. understanding urban transitions, and their politics, requires engagement with a kaleidoscope of plural socio-technical regimes that go to make up the urban, and in which climate change experiments provide critical junctures through which new configurations are assembled, mobilized, normalized and contested. (Bulkeley et al, 2013)

7 Unpacking the urban Marginal interest in the urban by literatures on technological innovations and system change Cities regarded as simply locations across which transition dynamics play out; Cities (city governments) as an actor that leads transitions; Cities as theatre for action, providing spaces for innovation that can act as seedbeds for transitions innovation junctions The urban as a space for experimentation that can be scaled up so as to effect wider system change Socio-technical transformation requires the generation of spaces of authority through which multiple elements - technologies, resources, norms, beliefs are enrolled and reassembled.

8 What s (in) a smart city? Citizens (smart citizens) and businesses at the core Access to open data City Datastore Technical capability Innovation (R&D, social innovation) egovernment services brought together through networks To better serve citizens and business needs To offer a smarter city experience for all Cities as real-time systems Internet of Things - the networked connection between everyday objects

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10 One possible definition and vision of smart cities A smart city is one in which the seams and structures of the various urban systems are made clear, simple, responsive and even malleable via contemporary technology and design. Citizens are not only engaged and informed in the relationship between their activities, their neighbourhoods, and the wider urban ecosystems, but are actively encouraged to see the city itself as something they can collectively tune, such that it is efficient, interactive, engaging, adaptive and flexible, as opposed to the inflexible, monofunctional and monolithic structures of many 20 th century cities (Arup, 2010)

11 The case study: electricity, ICT and EVs in the UK ICT the whole of the networks, systems and artefacts which enable the transmission, receipt, capture, storage and manipulation of voice and data traffic on and across electronic devices (Horrocks et al, 2010). Smart meters - a system that provides real-time information to consumers on energy use, allows remote meter reading and limited remote control (such as disconnection of the supply) and can transmit price signals to consumers indicating when the cheaper tariff is available. Smart grids - are based on a general two-way flow of electricity and information based on arrangements of metering systems and sensors which measure and control energy flow from energy supplier to the customers in order to optimize and adjust energy production and consumption in a limited area and avoiding energy transmission over long distances. Electric vehicles (EVs) are powered by an electric motor instead of a gasoline engine.

12 Topography of a smart grid

13 A multi-level effort At national level: A cross-departmental Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) A national programme for installing 47 million smart meters by 2020 The Low Carbon Vehicles Innovation Platform Smart Grid Forum The Low Carbon Network Fund. At EU level: The European Electricity Grid Initiative Smart Grid Task Force EU RES Directives 2009/2007 At urban level: The London Electric Vehicle Partnership Pilot and demonstration projects Urban transport, company and Local Authorities fleets.

14 However ICT is layered on top of existing electrical infrastructure, and the two infrastructures are planned almost independently. Smart grid development is limited to particular areas of integration of ICT and electricity distribution, and is focused on pilots The use of EVs is still limited and quite geographically restricted to smart cities and neighborhoods (London, Manchester, Sheffield, Brighton) What about open data and privacy? Who benefits from smart cities? Is it citizens?

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