The Utility's Transformation to a Smart City Platform Provider
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Date
2018-05
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Abstract
The concept of Smart Cities is pervasive when contemplating emerging energy trends and opportunities. And increasingly, large cities and municipalities are moving forward with sustainability objectives which are decidedly concentrated on the premise of smart livability, workability, and environmental stewardship. Given this trend, coupled with an increasing percentage of the global population choosing to live in cities, Smart City methodologies offer plans and best practices to scale intelligently. To that end, The United Nations projects that by 2030, one in every three people will live in cities with at least half a million inhabitants. With this accelerated pace toward urbanization, infrastructure will need to be addressed. In considering today’s infrastructure needs, over 2.5 billion people in the developing world lack access to reliable electricity, approximately 2.5 billion people globally lack access to basic sanitation, almost 800 million people globally lack access to water, and 1-1.5 billion people globally do not have access to reliable phone services. Urbanization combined with massive needed infrastructure upgrades lends itself well to comprehensive Smart City approaches in cities around the world.
One significant and influential common public good in cities today is the electric utility. While Smart City ideas are being rolled out and discussed at every level, most utilities are strategizing on how to enable Smart Community development. The research provided in this report demonstrates how utilities are uniquely positioned to be a Smart City Platform Provider in their respective communities. Utilities understand their communities, possess core capabilities, are often price regulated, and are incumbent asset operators and owners. This Capstone will impart that when utilities are empowered to become platform providers, they are best positioned to take leadership roles in Smart Community development. The research concludes that the electric utility must pivot and self-disrupt to take advantage of this very present opportunity. Failure to do so could result in the eventual utility death spiral. The recommendations center on the utility becoming a smart city enabler and champion. Utilities accomplish this by:
- partnering with their stakeholders to understand a common vision;
- leveraging their assets and data to unleash new products and services;
- becoming customer-centric and embracing the rise of prosumers, and;
- transforming into integrated platform providers.
The research further demonstrates that the democratization of energy is critical to scaling smart city initiatives, and to do that responsibly, utilities must recognize and be willing to address climate change and sustainability priorities. The utility proposals on where to engage are fully discussed in the Utility Course of Action + Recommendations section of this report.
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Keywords
Smart City, Smart Community, Utility, Utilities