Urban Planning for City Leaders - Cities Alliance

How to provide infrastructure and key servicesImprove distributionefficiencyDecentralized energy production systemsmay suit rapidly expanding cities and lessdense settlements. The traditional engineeringapproach to power supply has been throughlarge, centralized production facilities andextensive distribution systems which requiresignificant investment and long project cycles. 91Decentralized systems can reach off-gridlocations, save energy and are more resilientagainst natural and human-made disasters.Technologies available today allow an effectiveintegration of these systems with the grid asdemand and supply fluctuates.Smart grids are considered to be the future ofenergy management. Intelligent electric metersenable the integration of decentralized powergenerators, matching supply and demand, andallow flexible billing. 92 A building on a smartgrid could independently regulate its electricityrequirement at any point in the day, store itsenergy surplus and, if necessary, feed it backinto the city distribution network. Smart gridscan increase the efficiency of renewable sourcesin the energy mix. At the grid level, smartsensors can continuously check the functionalcapability and initiate speedy repairs to avoidenergy loss in the case of malfunction. 93 Whilesmart grids and smart metering may seem faroff in cities where a consistent electricity supplyis still not guaranteed, leapfrogging would allowa more efficient energy supply and demandmodel.Electric vehicles could be help to mainstreamrenewable energies because they can act asstorage for electricity generated by renewablesources. Cities such as London (England) havea network of recharging stations that wouldmake electric cars more acceptable. Developingpartnerships to install these stations may meanlittle or no cost for the city.A smart grid at work in Wildpoldsried, Allgäu, Germany© SiemensElectric vehicles being charged at an autolib-stationin Paris, France © Flickr/Stephen Rees83