Siemens is working with local power companies and real estate development associations to launch a large smart city project in Vienna, Austria. A living laboratory will be created in the next five years in the waterside district of Aspern, one of the largest urban development projects in Europe.
Here, power supply, building systems, intelligent power grids, and information and communication technologies will interact.
The partners have established the company Aspern Smart City Research with a budget of nearly $51 million. The company will start work October 1 to create a multifunctional urban district in Aspern, which is located in the northeastern part of Vienna.
The area will include apartments and offices, as well as an area for business, science, research, and education. The district will cover around 593 acres – 50 percent of which will be reserved for public areas - plazas, parks, and game fields. The vision is to create an intelligent city of the future with 20,000 residents by 2030.
Decentralized power generation from renewable energy sources will supply Aspern's electrical needs, and energy storage technologies will be employed.
The project represents an opportunity to develop a long-term integrated concept for an energy-optimized city district using technologies, products and solutions in a real-world infrastructure. One step involves connecting buildings that have different functions such as offices and apartments, to the low-voltage distribution network. In the future, building control systems will manage the energy exchange between buildings and optimize energy consumption locally. This offers building operators the possibility to participate actively on the energy markets.
Information and communication technologies will play a role in this process, as will data evaluation. New IT solutions will detect faults in the system, recognize inefficient consumption patterns, and identify potential opportunities for savings.
Photo Copyright: Christian Husar/Wirtschaftsagentur Wien
