Energy data management at the heart of the Smart City
The Smart City relies on data to optimize its energy performance and improve the comfort of its inhabitants.
From collection to operation, the Energisme platform strengthens the control of data by local authorities. Data thus becomes a decision-making tool for local players.
What is energy data collection?
Energy data collection consists in gathering data from various sources in order to obtain an overview of energy consumption at the territory level.
In the context of the smart city, one of the goals is to optimize energy management.
In the era of Big Data, local authorities are generating a huge amount of data that is useful for understanding the energy and environment of their territory.
This includes data on the uses of inhabitants as well as information on water, electricity and heating networks.
In order to produce useful and exploitable information from this data, it is necessary to :
Where does the data come from?
In terms of energy, the data comes from 3 main sources:
- Energy supply bills and contracts
- Remote reading data from distribution network operators
- Sub-metering and IoT sensor data
The N’Gage platform, developed by Energisme, automates the collection of these energy data flows. The solution interfaces with data sources to integrate useful data and process them for optimal use.
Energy bills include several types of data relevant to a territory-wide energy management policy:
- Administrative information: supplier, name and address of the invoiced site, invoice date and number, contract reference, type of invoice
- Technical data: meter number, type of fluid, billed consumption
- Financial data: subscription, tariff/consumption by time/season class, components, overruns, taxes and contributions, ancillary costs, etc.
The N’Gage platform interfaces with suppliers’ databases via electronic feeds or APIs to automatically extract this billing data.
More accurate than billing information, dealer remote reading allows :
- Understand precisely your consumption profile and how to optimize it
- Quickly identify consumption deviations
- Optimize your electricity delivery subscriptions
The data is collected via APIs that connect indirectly to electricity (ENEDIS), gas (GRDF) or water (Suez, Veolia) meters.
Decision-making in the smart city requires the collection of very detailed data on transformations or consumption by use. However, neither billing data nor data from network managers allow such a level of granularity.
The installation of measurement equipment and IoT sensors facilitates the acquisition of specific and contextualized data. Energisme assists its customers in extending the scope of data collection, in synergy with a network of IoT (Internet of Things) solution providers.
Smart city: challenges and goals
The strategic challenge of energy data
In terms of energy, this means optimizing resources.
The stakes are many:
- environment
- budgetary savings
- quality of life for inhabitants
To meet these challenges, decision-makers must have a precise and documented vision of their territory’s energy landscape.
Energy data provides them with this overall vision. For this vision to emerge, the quality of the data is the central issue. It is the prerequisite for any local energy management strategy.
However, the quantity and diversity of available data can paralyze action. Only a controlled and structured use of data will make it a real tool for decision making.
What is the purpose of this energy data?
The collection and processing of energy data responds to the desire of policy makers to base their decisions and action plans on factual information.
Indeed, data is a rich source of information for a community. Put at the service of the territory and its socio-economic actors, it has a direct impact on territorial strategies.
For example, it supports local authorities’ choices in terms of land use planning.
Energy data management is essential for all those involved in designing the city of tomorrow.
At the territorial level, the cross-referencing of public and private data provides an overview of energy issues that can be shared with elected officials, project developers and citizens.
The opening of the territorial database to all stakeholders, in an open data logic, opens the way to a collaborative approach.
In this sense, data interoperability, i.e., the ability to mix and make actionable multiple data, is a prerequisite for the management of energy data
This new form of governance implies a rigorous management of local data to meet territorial challenges.
It is also accompanied by increased responsibility for data security.
Data security, a key issue for the smart city
The development of the smart city relies on an ecosystem of mobile applications and IoT sensors to collect data. Nevertheless, this massive data collection is accompanied by questions from citizens about data security.
Before being a smart city, a city must be a safe city.
Cybersecurity has become an awareness in the business world. Local authorities will also have to integrate this issue: how to put data at the service of the territory and its inhabitants while guaranteeing the protection of citizens’ data?
First of all, transparency and information for stakeholders are a guarantee of reassurance. From this point of view, open data is also a citizen issue.
Furthermore, it is becoming essential for local authorities to choose technologies that combine Cybersecurity by design and Privacy by design. The organization around the RGPD, coupled with a solid external infrastructure, will guarantee the protection of personal data.