The Internet of Things (IoT) market will grow exponentially between now and 2020: in fact, it is estimated that connected and smart objects will increase from 6,4 billion in 2015 to 20,8 billion in 2020 worldwide (but some argue even 50 billion). The most popular smart devices are undoubtedly those we use every day: smartphones, tablets, smartwatches which, thanks to the internet connection, allow us to interact with the virtual world and the surrounding environment. But, beyond intelligent consumer-type objects, the IoT has enormous application potential in many other economic sectors. The area of public utility infrastructure is one of them.
In fact, the digital automation of infrastructures belonging to the traffic, transport and logistics sectors offers significant cost savings opportunities thanks to the possibility of obtaining better operational and energy efficiency and being able to carry out predictive maintenance. Trenitalia, for example, has launched the Dynamic Maintenance Management project which uses on-board sensors to record a series of maintenance parameters, with an expected cost saving of 8-10%. Of all the possible applications, we believe that the greatest potential of the Internet of Things lies in the city infrastructures and in the improvement of the services they provide.
It is estimated that by 2050 approximately 2/3 of the world's population will live in cities and, therefore, the global challenges that will be faced in the management of scarce resources and the management of city infrastructures are immense. The Internet of Things, therefore, plays a central role in simplifying the management of urban environments and in facilitating the creation of resilient and sustainable cities: the real-time information on water, gas and electricity consumption obtained with Smart Meters favors the obtaining energy efficiency, while network monitoring favors cost reduction thanks to the optimization of maintenance interventions; digital facilitates the creation of Smart Grids in city contexts while sensors and video surveillance allow environmental monitoring, the reduction of CO2 emissions thanks to intelligent public and private transport systems and increase citizen safety. Studies by the Agici Infrastructure Unit demonstrate how the IoT can actually bring significant benefits: a smart metering system for gas, for example, assuming a 100% replacement of Italian utility meters, would generate a net benefit of around 2 billion euros in fifteen years; this in terms of energy savings, lower CO2 emissions, cost savings thanks to remote reading.
Globally, the IoT is starting to spread like wildfire especially in city infrastructures: the United States boasts a large number of digital applications for the Smart City (in particular Smart Meters, Smart Parking, Smart Water&Waste and applications for sustainable mobility ). Even in the Far East, cities are becoming smart, particularly in Japan and South Korea; in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are expanding from a Smart City perspective. Many European cities have launched important projects with IoT technologies in recent years (Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Berlin, etc.). Italy, on the other hand, is still experiencing a phase of experimentation although the operators in the sector have understood how digital technologies are essential to enable the cities of the future. Among the major Italian utilities to have launched IoT projects for the city are: A2A, Hera, Edison and Enel.
The Seminar “The internet of things for public utility infrastructures. How to accelerate development?”, organized by Agici to be held in Milan on 1 December 2016, aims to understand what difficulties national operators encounter in carrying out IoT projects in the field of public utility services, analyzing the obstacles that arise in the implementation phases.
Among the main barriers to implementation is the uncertainty about network infrastructures: currently the market offers numerous alternatives for the communication of intelligent objects both broadband and narrowband; the real obstacle, however, refers to identifying the most reliable network and at the lowest cost since a shared standard does not yet exist. A second barrier concerns the internal organization of the company and the low propensity to change of numerous Italian companies: in many cases, to overcome the obstacle, ad hoc units have been set up, with resources with digital and managerial skills, which manage across the IoT projects. Finally, from a legislative point of view, the lack of a reference standard that addresses the technical choices and the technical/economic benchmarking of measurement devices (such as meters) is of particular importance. In this case, the Authority has started experimenting with multi-service Smart Metering in various Italian areas: the pilot projects make it possible to compare the different technologies in order to identify the best one and make it market standard.
To make the many benefits generated by the use of digital technology in the public infrastructure sector effective, it is therefore necessary to identify some solutions that allow overcoming the difficulties highlighted. We believe that at the communication network level, the spread of the NB-IoT will be decisive, the cellular network on the licensed spectrum which guarantees high territorial coverage and low energy consumption; from a business point of view, not only the creation of ad hoc IoT units, but more generally it is necessary to invest in skills and training for management and in communication to explain to users the new ways of using public services. An important role both from the point of view of investments and awareness will have to be played by the utilities, also through the creation of laboratories for experimenting with these technologies (in this A2A has already started). Important support will then have to come from the institutions and regulatory authorities. The national and city institutions will have to prepare strategic and operational plans for the development and support of new technologies (for example by defining the National Urban Agenda), while the Authorities will have to define the technical standards for the market in a short time. These and other solutions will be analyzed and discussed during the seminar, thanks to the presentation of cases and concrete experiences of the main national operators.
