*The Amsterdam Smart City project is set to become a blueprint for green urban living, with a smart grid at its heart. Kathleen Davis explains.*

More than half of greenhouse gas emissions are generated by cities, where 80 per cent of the world's population lives and where up to 80 per cent of all energy is consumed. But now smart grid technology is starting to be used to drastically reduce the carbon impact of urban communities.

Amsterdam is a prime example. In June 2009, grid operator Alliander and regional development agency Amsterdamse Innovatie Motor joined forces with Accenture to create Amsterdam Smart City. Designed to encourage long-term behavioural change among businesses and residents, Amsterdam Smart City focuses on combining complementary technologies for maximum efficiency and minimum environmental impact, as well as establishing a local best-practice model for a more sustainable, lower-carbon approach to living and working in Amsterdam.

*Key features*

A flagship project of the programme is Climate Street, a typical Amsterdam city centre street lined with 140 traders in shops, cafes and restaurants. The project takes an holistic approach to all sides of the energy equation, from waste to transport and lighting. Its key features include:

* electric vehicles collect trade refuse and deliver goods to businesses;

* solar-lit tram stops and billboards;

* integral compactors allow waste bins to be emptied five times less frequently than regular bins, saving money, fuel and traffic congestion, while a reverse osmosis water column cuts the distance that cleaning vehicles have to drive to refuel;

* 150 outlets where inland cargo and river cruisers can hook up to the grid when docked, rather than connecting to high-polluting on-board diesel generators;

* the ITO Tower smart building - Accenture's Amsterdam office - where smart technology analyses the building's programming and utility data to identify energy consumption efficiencies and lower the building's carbon footprint;

* smart meters for hundreds of businesses (and 500 homes in the West Orange project), including additional feedback on energy consumption sent via mobile phone;

* smart plugs to automatically dim or switch off unused appliances and lights;

* street lighting using energy-saving lamps that can be dimmed at quieter times of the night.

According to Maikel van Verseveld, Accenture's European smart grid leader: "The comprehensive nature of this project underlines our belief that smart grids will be the backbone of the future city environment. Projects like Amsterdam are a step in the right direction and the lessons learnt here will be used for future initiatives around the world."

*Blueprint for other cities*

Indeed, Amsterdam Smart City is expected to serve as a blueprint for other European cities, with Stockholm and Lyon hotly tipped as likely contenders for the next smart cities. Further afield, moves towards smart cities can be found in Yangzhou in China; Boulder, Colorado, in the US; and Masdar City on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi.

Driven by aggressive carbon reduction targets, smart grid technology is challenging the way that city authorities think about energy, consumption and sustainability. It is also playing the role of matchmaker between these authorities and utilities and private and public sector companies.

The smart grid is set to become a growing feature of the infrastructure of our towns and cities. Smart cities will be at the heart of this revolution, using intelligent grid technology to plan the cities of the future around a cleaner, greener, more efficient model.

Kathleen Davis is conference director of Powergrid Europe.

www.powergrideurope.com