The Value of Smart City Initiatives Offer New Twist on Old Question of Affordability

Black & Veatch’s 2017 Strategic Directions: Smart City/Smart Utility Report reinforces lessons learned in the past year—although governments and municipalities believe strongly in the smart city model, they continue to struggle to fund these efforts. According to survey data, only 16 percent of municipalities can self-fund a smart city initiative, a little over a third cannot.

Communications Network is the Foundation of Smarter Cities and Smarter Grids

By building communications networks that can more tightly integrate business drivers and goals with the day-to-day load demand for their customers, utilities are taking the initial steps toward integrating the smart grid with smart cities. The foundation for both utility systems integration and smart grid/smart city integration is the communications network.

Military Dining and Quality of Life

Napoleon has been credited with the saying, “An army marches on its stomach.” An infantryman himself, Napoleon understood first-hand the importance of supplying an army on the move in which it was common practice for each soldier to procure his own food from villages along the campaign trail.

Smarter Public Safety Communication Systems Are Critical to the Evolution of Cities

As the communication technologies leveraged by the public safety sector advance, the intersection with smart city initiatives becomes all the more inevitable. Technological advances afforded by broadband long-term evolution (LTE) networks have changed how first responders, city and county officials, public agencies and transportation fleets communicate and gather data to better serve their communities.

Companies are Purchasing Sophisticated Software Tools to Improve EHS&S Transparency

The survey of 172 ‘in-house’ EHS&S leaders revealed that one-third (33%) of those who are currently shopping for a new system are doing so to provide greater external transparency.

In Africa, Natural Events and Surging Demand Place New Spotlight on Microgrids

The impact of natural disasters on power grid resilience is increasingly gaining attention worldwide. Adapting lessons learned from high-profile incidents that have occurred elsewhere for the African continent, where energy supply is already intermittent, may provide opportunities to enhance the region’s energy system reliability through smart grid infrastructure solutions.

Grid Modernization: Utility 2.0 has arrived, but it brings opportunity and caution

For years, utilities have struggled to define the more responsive operational systems and customer-centric performance models that would trumpet the arrival of Utility 2.0. Lacking a singular event marking the shift, it seems more likely a steady, incremental advance through technology deployments, analytics and a focus on customer engagement represents the path towards a continually evolving future state.

From Whiteboards to Neighborhoods, Smart Street Systems Engage Citizens

Once considered the purview of Jetsons-era futurescapes, smart street systems have made the transition from science fiction to real city council planning agendas. Sensor-laden Wi-Fi kiosks, smart streetlights, EV charging stations and integrated urban mobility systems are generating rising interest as cities demand greater connectivity, resource efficiency, enhanced public safety and more effective municipal service delivery.

Smart Cities Need Smart Master Planning Processes

As governments consider where to spend their smart city funding, they may initially center on the critical building blocks of a smart city but often become subject to short-term budget priorities. To this point, responses to the 2017 Strategic Directions: Smart City/ Smart Utility Report survey suggest a vexing conundrum: What comes first, the budget or the plan?

Smart Cities Will Depend on Smarter Movement of People and Goods

One of the challenges in smart city transportation is to be able to go from point A to point B, while reducing the number of cars on the market, and also being able to use existing public transportation.

Maryline Daviaud Lewett, Business Development Manager, Black & Veatch, discusses how cities are partnering with the private sector to optimize these services.

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