Smart City: A Key Enabler for Urban Efficiency

In just 40 years, more than 70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas. Therefore, cities around the world need smarter ways to operate and become more efficient and sustainable. This paper starts with an introduction to and the need for a smart city, with a focus on its two major components – Smart Infrastructure and Smart Utilities. These are the building-blocks of any city, and improving their efficiency brings immediate and visible improvement to the everyday life of people. The paper further discusses some challenges of smart cities with possible solutions. Integration of conventional power with renewable energy: New technologies like weather forecasting and remote energy management can enable grid operator to evaluate the performance and need for a source of energy and make adjustments accordingly. Meeting power requirements intelligently: Demand response and demand side management technologies can enable energy efficiency as a resource and a credible alternative to building more power plants to meet capacity needs. Parallel operation of utilities and microgrids: Modern network management tools and advanced distribution management systems provide means to model, monitor, and manage microgrid-enhanced grids while ensuring safety and reliability. Solving the riddle of network security: Smart cities can enhance cybersecurity when they implement the concept of cyber-defense, which uses a product’s security features to create a cyber-strategy for defending an entire system. The paper concludes with a case study on Naya Raipur Smart City, demonstrating the implementation of a central platform integrated with connected products and solutions. Keywords—Smart City, Urban Efficiency, Smart Grid, Smart Infrastructure, Energy Efficiency