How Schneider Electric is Building Smart Cities for the Future

INTERVIEW

How Schneider Electric is

Building the Smart Cities of

the Future

The Sustainabilist spoke to Marwan Zeidan, Real Estate and Healthcare Segment Director for Middle East and Africa at Schneider Electric, about the complexities of smart cities and how these needed to be addressed

8 A s the technology required to implement Smart Cities becomes increasingly sophisticated and complex, what steps are being taken to ensure it operates effectively and reliably? Much has been said about the benefits of a

smart city to its citizens. There’s the ability to better access information through city apps, and better manage material issues, such as traffic flow. Much has also been said about how smart cities can improve how governmental bodies can engage with businesses and residents. These benefits

make life more convenient for sure, but there’s another discussion to be had. Sustainability hasn’t featured much in discussions around smart cities – it’s hardly featured here at all – and we need to change the conversation. There’s increasing pressure to not just make cities more efficient, but to make them greener as well. Our belief is that urbanisation and technology can work together to contribute to sustainable growth. One example of this is energy consumption; cities consume 75% of global energy resources, and account for 80% of emissions. With the right energy management solutions in place, the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of cities can be reduced.

What are the security challenges that must be overcome to protect Smart Cities from threats, such as hacking? Governments must be proactive when it

comes to both identifying and mitigating potential risks. Cyber prioritisation should be a risk discussion at the highest level. The damage of a hack is both physical and psychological, and can both result in reputational impact, and “panic” in the ecosystem. In matters of cyber risk, it’s no longer an if but a when.

devices we have in our houses are already using the internet to process data. The same is true of our offices and factories. Right now, companies are generating about 10% of their data outside a traditional data centre or cloud. But within the next six years, that will increase to 75%, according to Gartner.

Our cyber security practice advises our customers to do three things. First, build resiliency into a multi-layered approach to security. Second, ongoing cyber resiliency includes a recovery plan to act on emergencies as well as proactive improvement plans to manage cybersecurity incidents and vulnerability reports. Finally, a good practice is to learn as much as possible from any incident that occurs through root cause analysis, both related to people, process, and technology, and the mapping of issues roadblocking prevention.

How can Smart Cities meet the challenge of population growth within cities and what steps can be taken to prevent disruption in services or infrastructure caused by excessive demand? I want to specifically talk about one big technology trend that’s going to dramatically shift how data is analysed. Edge computing is one of the most important trends in the technology industry. Edge computing is bringing about a radical shift in how organisations go digital, and how they engage with their customers. And this trend is being driven by the Internet of Things, by the idea of making devices such as air conditioning and fridges ‘smart’ by embedding sensors that transmit information back and forth.

While the notion of a smart home may still seem far off, many of the electronic Edge computing is computing that takes place at or near the source of the data, instead of relying on the cloud at one of a dozen data centres to do all the work. The cloud won’t disappear. Rather, Edge computing enables computing to move closer to the source of the data, namely you. The shorter distance means that costs to transmit data are reduced, and the time needed to analyse the data is drastically reduced.

What impact can the smart city concept have on preventing the spread of diseases such as the coronavirus? Healthcare is an industry that’s going to be transformed by smart city solutions such as Edge computing. Faced with rapidly rising healthcare costs, healthcare

providers are seeking new concepts to benefit patients and doctors. Two examples are tracking mobile medical devices for nursing efficiency as well as optimisation of equipment, and wearable devices that track user exercise and offer wellness advice. By using artificial intelligence, city authorities will be able to monitor the health of their citizens remotely, and spot anomalies in their early stages before outbreaks can occur.

What can be done to encourage smart cities in less developed countries? The smart city concept can be scaled to any location, no matter the cost. You don’t have to look at a whole city. Build solutions in smaller grids, by towers or squares, for example. Two examples of how smart cities are taking off outside of Europe and the US are India and Malaysia, both of which were pioneers in rolling out smart city technology. What we need here is creation and innovation, rather than just money. And that’s why focussing on STEM education matters – we need more graduates with technology skills, especially in the Middle East.