The new Control and Monitoring Centre for Smartcity, a project headed by Endesa in Malaga, Spain, opened last week. Smartcity is a new energy management model for cities aimed at achieving greater efficiency, lower CO2 emissions and increased usage of renewable energies.

The new control and monitoring centre occupies almost 200 m2 over two floors on the seafront of the area where the project is being rolled out, and serves as the base for monitoring the various aspects of the initiative: the status of the medium- and low-voltage network, consumption and self-supply by a range of unique installations, energy and CO2 emissions indicators, etc. The centre also serves as an information point: It is divided into different themed areas equipped with screens that explain the purpose of each of the technologies used in the project, most notably a 15 m2 video wall for presentations and another external screen which can be consulted by passers-by. It has been set up in this way as a reference point for information and to show the various milestones over the next three years for the public in general, for agents interested in finding out about the project, and for specialist working groups.

Smartcity Málaga is a Euro 31 million project headed by Endesa, in partnership with Enel, and which also involves another nine companies (Green Power Tech, Isotrol, IBM, Sadiel, Acciona, Ingeteam, Ormazabal, Telvent and Neometrics) and research centres. The project has been implemented in Malaga, in the city’s Playa de la Misericordia district, where the new Control and Monitoring Centre is situated, and is already benefiting 300 industrial customers, 900 service providers and 11,000 households.

Malaga was chosen because it ticks all the boxes for the project: the city offers scope for growth, impressive technological capacity, the presence of a university and important companies, excellent electrical infrastructure and – most importantly – the firm support of the public authorities.

Smartcity Málaga, which seeks to raise awareness and engage end-users, is intended to achieve optimal grid integration of renewable energy sources by bringing power generation facilities closer to end-users through the installation of photovoltaic panels on public buildings, the use of micro power generation in a number of hotels and the installation of micro wind power systems in the area.

In addition, batteries will be used to store the energy generated, so that some of the energy can be used for building climate control, public lighting and electric transport. Furthermore, charging stations will be installed and a fleet of vehicles will be dispatched to encourage the use of electric cars.

All the customers involved in the project will be provided with new smart meters, which have been developed for remote management to encourage more sustainable electricity consumption (around half these customers have been connected to date).

The installation of advanced telecommunications and remote control systems, managed from the new Control Centre, will also permit real-time and automated adjustments to the distribution network for a new form of energy management and better service.

The overall objective of the project is to achieve 20% energy savings, and to reduce CO2 emissions by over 6,000 tons per year.