I often blog about the capacity of ICT to change lives for the better, and make a real difference on the ground. Here’s one very solid example of where it’s saved energy, saved public money, and empowered people to take control: the pioneering NOBEL project
Nothing to do with the Prize – it refers to the Neighbourhood Oriented Brokerage ELectricity and monitoring system. Aided by EU funding, last year, Alginet in Valencia, Spain got to try it out. A small town with just over 13,000 people, the energy grid in Alginet is owned not by a commercial company, but by a cooperative – whose members are the inhabitants themselves. And they were chosen to test out an “energy brokerage system”: meaning that businesses and ordinary consumers could communicate their energy needs directly to energy producers – who could in turn optimise how they produce and distribute energy.
For example, electricity users could monitor their energy consumption and production – in real time! The “smart meters” they used also communicated data directly to energy producers.
Many of them got to try out a dedicated web and smartphone app to buy and sell energy, cut their monthly bill, and take part in weekly energy-saving challenges. Plus public authorities got to try out in “real life” how they could adapt street lighting to match traffic conditions – for example so lights don’t stay on at full brightness unless there’s someone around.
All in all this was a big success: around 5,000 people used all or part of the system. On average energy savings were around 12% for citizens; up to 58% for large consumers; and 34% for public lighting.
In today’s energy market, with increasing worries about climate change, and public finances under pressure at every level, that’s exactly the kind of innovation we should be sharing and using. And that’s the purpose of our European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities – a new platform for communities to get together with each other and with the industry to make the most of these new ideas; especially in the rich seam at the intersection of ICT, energy and transport.
I’m told Alginet are already looking to share their findings and the system with other cooperatives – and I wish them the best of luck!
