Utility Strategy as Smart City Enabler

The US utility Duke Energy has been stepping up its smart solutions game in the past years. With projects such as the deployment of smart meters, they're upgrading and modernizing their infrastructure. As of 2023, over 60% of clients had one of these devices to improve the view and management of the grid. Another one of their smart projects is linked to their streetlights, a project that has led them to act as smart city enablers, something we explored in a previous video. During the 2024 edition of DistribuTECH in Orlando, I spoke to Jim Cowling, Director of Outdoor Lighting at Duke Energy, who told me they are installing smart lighting controllers on their 2.5 million fixtures. So far, some 180,000 have been installed. With this modernization, more space for smart city solutions has been created. These smart controllers, which as we know, enable connectivity and the transmission of real time data, among other features, have led the utility to connect devices such as air quality sensors or cameras, opening the door to another business revenue stream. We want to provide our cities, our municipal customers, the ability to do those types of things, even if it's on our assets. We've already provided the opportunity for them to make smart cities types of attachments now, and certainly other types of future opportunities, we're willing to entertain with our municipal customers. We really want to partner with them on these types of efforts, because most of these efforts are a win win. It's good for the city, it's good for the utility, and it's good for the end user, the customer. If the client is looking to deploy cameras, for example, the utility installs the device for $700 for the first pole and 150 for the additional ones. The client then has to pay a monthly fee of around 10 to $25 a month. So sort of like a rent. So the utility is a player in the industry. I would say cameras are probably the top one right now. We are getting approached about environmental sensors, and we've been recently approached about other types of city sensors. We're seeing a variety, and I do think as it evolves, we’ll evolve more into some of the opportunities, like maybe traffic optimization for the cities and that type of thing, and pedestrian safety as well. They've also deployed 5G towers to improve connectivity, facilitating the process for carriers. They have over 1600 5G sites and they're exploring other areas as well. Some things we're looking at with modernization of not just the streetlights, but the entire streetlight infrastructure, we're looking at electric vehicles and how we can provide electric vehicle attachments on our street light assets, because typically in the locations where people need EV chargers for their cars, we have streetlight assets. So we're looking at how do we co-locate those and make it easy and cost effective for our customers to charge electric vehicles. All these projects will bring a source of revenue to the utility, which could accelerate smart city solution deployments thanks to the revenue streams. However, there is criticism towards the utility and US utilities in general when it comes to this acceleration. We have heard from inside the city of Charlotte that their relationship with the utility can at times be complicated when it comes to smart projects, as Duke Energy has full control over the poles, something that can sometimes affect accessibility and hinder city projects. To create a partnership, close differences and have all interests in mind. In 2011, Duke Energy, the City of Charlotte and city partners created Envision Charlotte, a non-profit built as a sustainability initiative. The way they were looking at it is they wanted a nonprofit that was more, neutral, when they were making suggestions on different programs because of course if it comes from Duke, it looks like it's being very one sided. Like, why is Duke involved in this? But in our community, especially in Charlotte, if you can bring all the stakeholders together, you have a much better chance of being, successful. So bringing in a nonprofit to kind of be the facilitator of bringing those buildings in, bringing Duke Energy and bringing the city in. And that's really the role we have played. One of their smart projects led them to uptown Charlotte, where, thanks to the public private partnership, they were able to bring down energy use by 19.2% in 61 commercial buildings. In 2017, they installed shadow meters, which are secondary devices used for internal monitoring, in these buildings, which were all over 10,000ft². The almost 20% reduction translated into $26 million in savings and CO2 emission cuts of 300,000 tons. Duke Energy and Itron installed the meters and Envision Charlotte brought in the university UNC Charlotte, who, after analyzing all the data, recommended changes or smart implementations to each building to reach their efficiency goals. It is a perfect example of how everyone can play their own role. So you had all these buildings who obviously it's a great incentive to be more energy efficient. If you can drive energy use down, you can recruit more companies to come in because it's cheaper to do business in your building. So you've got those, you've got the owners, you've got the companies coming in that are saving money. You've got the university that can use this as an opportunity to teach students. You bring in the government side on looking at, if there could, we did not actually implement this, but we did look at incentives that the government could bring to bear. So I think when you bring in a coalition like that and everyone has a role to play, you can advance programs so much quicker. With a modernization of their infrastructures, utilities in the US are increasingly becoming smart city enablers. However, as cities like Charlotte continue to evolve, the balance between innovation and collaboration remains crucial. Projects like Envision Charlotte show that when industry players come together, they can achieve outcomes such as reducing energy use by almost 20%. For these advancements to truly succeed, maintaining partnerships that keep all interests aligned will be key.