COS Smart City Implementation Plan

VOLUME B: DEEP DIVE

The City of Colorado Springs and Colorado Springs Utilities Smart City Implementation Plan Helping Olympic City USA Define and Achieve Its Smart City Vision March 2018

“After all, these are complex matters without clear cut answers. There is no other way around it than reflective and deep-thinking leadership with good advisors.”

CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENT

Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Company 24735 East 75th Avenue, Denver, Colorado 80249 email: enterprise@us.panasonic.com

www.PanasonicCityNow.com

Contents 1.

INTRODUCTION TO SmartCOS DEEP DIVE...............................................................................7

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SmartCOS DASHBOARD...........................................................................................................8

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CITY SERVICES PILLAR..............................................................................................................9 SmartCOS City Services Vision.....................................................................................................9 City Services Pillar Ideas..............................................................................................................9 Creating A Relationship-Based Camera Pool.............................................................................10 As Is Description....................................................................................................................10 Anticipated Value of Solution................................................................................................12 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................12 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................12 Case Study: City of Minneapolis & SecuroNet Virtual Safety Network.................................14 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................14 Open Data Policy and Program..................................................................................................16 As Is Description....................................................................................................................16 Anticipated Value of Solution................................................................................................17 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................17 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................17 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................18 Smart Parking, including Safety and Other Services..................................................................19 As Is Description....................................................................................................................19 Anticipated Value of Solution................................................................................................20 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................20 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................20 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................21 Smart Kiosks...............................................................................................................................22 As Is Description....................................................................................................................22 Anticipated Value of Solution................................................................................................24 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................25

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Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................25 Case Studies: How to Monetize the Kiosk Assets.................................................................26 Case Study: Kansas City, Missouri.........................................................................................26 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................27 IoT Management Console..........................................................................................................28 As Is Description....................................................................................................................28 Anticipated Value of Solution................................................................................................29 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................30 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................30 Use Case: IoT for Environmental Sensing..............................................................................32 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................33 4.

TRANSPORTATION & MOBILITY PILLAR..................................................................................34 SmartCOS Transportation and Mobility Vision..........................................................................34 Transportation & Mobility Pillar Ideas.......................................................................................34 Improve Visitor & Resident Experience at Garden of the Gods................................................36 As Is Description....................................................................................................................36 Anticipated Value of Solution................................................................................................37 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................37 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................38 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................39 Smart Transportation and Mobility Plan for COS......................................................................40 As Is Description....................................................................................................................40 Anticipated Value of Solution................................................................................................42 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................43 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................43 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................44 Connected Vehicle Platform......................................................................................................45 As Is Description....................................................................................................................45 Anticipated Value of Solution................................................................................................47

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Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................47 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................48 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................48 Payment Platform for Public Transport......................................................................................49 As Is Description....................................................................................................................49 Anticipated Value of Solution................................................................................................51 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................51 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................51 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................52 5.

BUILDINGS & SUSTAINABILITY PILLAR...................................................................................53 SmartCOS Buildings & Sustainability Vision...............................................................................53 Buildings & Sustainability Pillar Ideas........................................................................................53 CAB Energy Savings and Smart Building Management.............................................................54 As Is Description....................................................................................................................54 Anticipated Value of Solution................................................................................................55 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................55 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................55 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................56 Continue to Advance with Water Efficiency..............................................................................57 As Is Description....................................................................................................................57 Anticipated Value of Solution................................................................................................58 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................59 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................59 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................59

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ENERGY & UTILITIES PILLAR...................................................................................................61 SmartCOS Energy Vision............................................................................................................61 An Energy Sector in Transition...................................................................................................61 The Role of CSU as a Municipal Utility.......................................................................................62 Drake Coal Plant.........................................................................................................................63

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Added Value: Increased Resilience........................................................................................64 Added Value: Reusing the Railroad Tracks.............................................................................65 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................65 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................66 Energy Pillar Project Ideas.........................................................................................................68 Smart Street (Light) Framework, COS........................................................................................69 Overview of Smart LED Street Light Infrastructure with IoT.................................................69 Smart Street Lights Enable Smarter Streets and Cities..........................................................70 Ownership of Streetlights......................................................................................................71 Case Study: Advanced Solar LED Streetlighting Solution.......................................................72 Anticipated Value of Proposed Solution................................................................................73 Major Challenges Moving Forward........................................................................................74 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................75 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................75 Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Project......................................................................76 As Is Description....................................................................................................................76 Anticipated Value of Solution................................................................................................77 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................79 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................79 Looking Forward....................................................................................................................80 Coordinated Fiber Layout Infrastructure Strategy.....................................................................82 As Is Description....................................................................................................................82 Anticipated Value of Solution for COS Residents and Businesses.........................................83 Case Study: The Socio-Economic Benefits of Investing in Fiber - Sweden............................83 Anticipated Value of Solution for CSU...................................................................................84 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................85 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................85 Case Study: Fiber and the City of Chattanooga, Tennessee..................................................85 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................86

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Micro-Grids for the City and the Airport...................................................................................87 As Is Description....................................................................................................................87 Anticipated Value of Solution................................................................................................88 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................89 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................90 Community Solar, Community Energy Storage and Community Micro-grids.......................91 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................93 Electrical Vehicle (EV) Strategy..................................................................................................94 As Is Description....................................................................................................................94 Anticipated Value of Solution................................................................................................96 Urgency to Move Forward.....................................................................................................97 Framework for Anticipated Solution......................................................................................98 Next Steps..............................................................................................................................99 Substitute Generation Capacity with Renewables..................................................................100 As Is Description..................................................................................................................100 CSU Renewable Energy Incentive Programs........................................................................101 Anticipated Value of Solution..............................................................................................101 Urgency to Move Forward...................................................................................................101 Framework for Anticipated Solution....................................................................................102 APPENDIX A: PANASONIC COLLABORATORS................................................................................103 APPENDIX B: CITY COLLABORATORS............................................................................................106

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1. INTRODUCTION TO SmartCOS DEEP DIVE This Smart City Colorado Springs deep dive volume is aimed at Colorado Springs based on how we, the CityNOW team, have gotten to learn about the particulars in and around the city. But more importantly, the volume provides general trends, cases and perspectives on the four Pillars respectively, and the project ideas under each of them. This should be seen as the CityNOW team pointing at best practices - to inspire. These suggestions can be adopted as a framework for Colorado Springs to share and continue working from.

Some suggestions in this volume will resonate with the community of Colorado Springs more than others. This is not a bad thing. Rather, this is how the needle is moved: You ask someone to push out the boat a little, and then use what comes out of that effort when it’s helpful, and put it aside when it’s not.

An example where we push out the boat a little is the section on the `Multi Agency Command Center´. We have touched on this topic in the Pillar Process from different perspectives, but a concrete project idea moving forward never gelled in the end, mostly because there is no rush, and other project ideas had higher priority from a timeline perspective. This `Multi Agency Command Center´ is not a foreign futuristic vision; it’s something Panasonic has been, and currently is, working on in other engagements, and it’s a key component to a connected city vision. We have taken our CityNOW subject matter experts’ best practices and compiled it into a vision that potentially could be implemented in Colorado Springs in a not too far away future.

Also, we’d like to stress, as we’ve done so many times throughout this engagement, that places are about people, not technology. That is why the City of Colorado Springs, The Colorado Springs Utilities and Panasonic CityNOW have relentlessly focused on human-centric benefits – the “why” behind smart city solutions. The Smart City vision of Colorado Springs is about making live-work-play experiences safe, sustainable, clean, resilient, cost-effective, seamless, efficient, accessible. Put simply, it is about making urban living transformationally better.

Unlocking transformational outcomes has required that Colorado Springs step outside of business as usual. To achieve the city’s ambitious goals, operating within the same old silos and ways of doing things was not good enough anymore. There is a better way – and we have watched this blossoming transformation take hold in relationships across the city over the past 6 months.

Through the Pillar Process, stakeholders within the City of Colorado Springs, the Colorado Springs Utilities and a variety of community organizations have achieved a high level of executive stakeholder alignment to undertake substantial and rapid change management through service design thinking. This city-wide communications web has been the key towards enabling a sustainable smart city vision for energy, transportation, city services and buildings master planning to set the stage for economic growth and prosperity for generations to come.

The work continues,

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Kjell Persson, Pillar Process Lead

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Salomé Balderrama, Pillar Process Lead

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2. SmartCOS DASHBOARD The following dashboard is a comprehensive overview of the 17 projects/pilots. Most projects are “In Progress,” and a few projects, marked in grey, are currently “aspirational” and need further stakeholder alignment to move into a more actionable phase. This is all good. A Smart City initiative is a marathon, not a sprint.

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Relationship-Based Camera Pool

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Open Data Pilot

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Smart Parking, including Safety and Other Services Smart Kiosks

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IoT Management Console

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Improve Visitor & Resident Experience at Garden of the Gods Smart Transportation and Mobility Plan for COS Connected Vehicle Platform

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CAB Energy Savings and Smart Building Management System Continue to Advance with Water Efficiency

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Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Project Microgrids for the City and the Airport

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Electrical Vehicle (EV) Strategy

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Coordinated Fiber Layout Infrastructure Strategy Substitute Generation Capacity with Renewables

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3. CITY SERVICES PILLAR SmartCOS City Services Vision A smart city approach to city services builds on foundational infrastructure investments such as fiber, smart meters, smart streetlights and the connected vehicle platform. Therefore, city services are the layer where the data is collected and analyzed, and the policy, legal and technical mechanisms are put in place to deploy services based on the Internet of Things (IoT) not only for improved efficiency, but also security, wayfinding, branding, learning, revenue generation, transparency and citizen engagement.

Demands for affordable housing and public transit, tensions around gentrification and density, safety and population growth, are just some of the more difficult conversations citizens need to engage in. City services seeks to provide a platform to engage the community of Colorado Springs in the city-making process, rooted in belief that smarter answers come from a deeper public ownership of the city’s future.

Through improved two-way communication tools, the City of Colorado Springs is actively seeking to involve diverse voices in city-making and is exploring new ways for increasing civic participation. Be it through smart kiosks that allow the implementation of quick side-walk surveys, or the open-data initiative to draw-in residents as problem-solvers within their community, or smart parking meters that make it easy to connect to 911, the SmartCOS approach to city services is to be closer than ever to citizens, to actively lean-in and engage in positive dialogues.

The SmartCOS vision for citizen engagement is the delivery of information to citizens and visitors where and when they need it, city process that are easy to navigate, and citizens that are actively contribute to improving the quality of life in Colorado Springs.

City Services Pillar Ideas The City Services Pillar project ideas that have percolated and been prioritized during the Pillar Process as of today are: 

Relationship-Based Camera Pool

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Open Data Pilot

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Smart Parking, including Safety and Other Services

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Smart Kiosks

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IoT Management Console.

As a starting point, through the implementation of innovative public private partnerships, the city plans to deploy interactive kiosks across the city. This initiative will include both economically advantaged and economically disadvantaged communities, to make information and city services available to residents throughout the city and to help bridge the digital divide.

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As an example of making better use of the assets the city already owns, through the relationship-based camera pool project, the city aims to make public spaces, plazas, and parks safer, by detecting and deterring crime, improving first responder effectiveness, protecting the rights and lives of public safety personnel and citizens, and supporting post-event investigations, while providing peace of mind.

Creating A Relationship-Based Camera Pool

IN PROGRESS A

Relationship-Based Camera Pool

ASPIRATIONAL B

Video Standards, Web-based Tool

ASPIRATIONAL C

Multi-Agency Command Center

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As Is Description Being a safe city is a precursor of being a smart city. Best practices maintain the following three guiding principles for improving a city’s safety improvement strategy: 

Having a plan is one of the most important aspects for tackling security issues.

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Any risk reduction effort starts with risk analysis.

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Security is not a feature; security is a process.

While Colorado Springs is within the top 10% of US Cities when it comes to safety, the city can always do better.

The chance that a person will become a victim of a violent crime in Colorado Springs, such as armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape or murder, is 1 in 201. This equates to a rate of 5 per one thousand inhabitants. 1 Figure 1: Violent Crime Comparison (Per 1,000 Residents)2.

Figure 2: Property Crime Comparison (Per 1,000 Residents).3

In Colorado Springs, there is currently no arrangement or system for remote access to private security cameras. The Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) detectives visit scene, look visually for cameras, and then attempt to gain 1 Neighborhoodscout.com 2 Neighborhoodscout.com 3 Neighborhoodscout.com

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Expected benefits of this solution:  Improving safety / security  Improving response accuracy.  Faster response times.  Increasing perception of safety.  Providing evidence in domestic violence cases.  Improving evidence collection ENERGY & UTILITIES PILLAR at accident scenes.

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 Assisting in exiting consent decrees.

 Recognizing patterns of officer behavior.

 Decreasing officer complaints.

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access to private recordings by talking with building managers/owners. These recordings could be on a variety of media, from VHS tapes to cloud-based solutions and everything in between.

Beyond images, cameras can also work like a data capture devices to gather general data through heat maps to help the city understand usage and frequency patterns and optimize maintenance and operations.

Anticipated Value of Solution Densely populated urban areas continue to experience public safety challenges. Law enforcement officials are exploring enhanced video surveillance and audio to enhance public safety. Such surveillance can add to a sense of public safety.

Beyond these public safety benefits, a city can utilize surveillance to reduce costly officer time responding to false alarms. The City of Boulder police department recently calculated only 10 of 4,915 alarms were legitimate, resulting in significant waste of officer time lost to dispatch and response time. Video surveillance have the potential to allow remote monitoring and verification of an alarm status.

CSPD is currently responsible for implementing and monitoring cameras downtown, is also involved with coordinating access to private cameras when CSPD is performing an investigation. Knowing ahead of an incident what technology the CSPD needs to access and review the recordings, as well as the names and contact information for camera resources would be very impactful, and save hours and lives during a response.

Urgency to Move Forward Colorado Springs is a city with a lot of land area facing a high rate of population growth. Like many cities with fast growth, it has limited staff and budget resources to respond to the traffic due to overcrowded roads and an increase in crime.

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Framework for Anticipated Solution This project can be undertaken in several parts, which includes a network of relationships as much as a technological solution. Most steps can be developed in parallel: 1) Technology is only a small portion of improving safety. The likely and most impactful solution is a program by which the City of Colorado Springs works with building managers to pre-arrange access to their security recordings, documenting and understanding what they could offer CSPD in case of an incident (abduction, terror, natural disaster).

2) An up-to-date (and regularly updated) map and database of these resources would then be developed showing where CSPD would be access recordings. CSPD could look at the map, and quickly understand what footage is available, as well as be pre-authorized to retrieve recordings of specific areas/angles.

3) The City would develop camera IT standards to standardize future camera procurement by the city.

4) For the private sector, the City would publish the recommended IT specifications (hardware, software, video standards). The City would also compile the desired means of remote access so that building owners could voluntarily participate in the program, and obtain the relevant pre-authorizations to use the remote access information. This voluntary participation would fast-track CSPD remote access to their (preferably cloud-based) video security solutions so that CSPD can tap into them in case of an incident.

5) The “flashy object” is a Batman-style wall of real-time video sourced from various City and private cameras, flowing to an intelligence team who would have access to unified view of all the camera footage. Artificial intelligence would be used to monitor the footage from the camera pool based on pre-programmed alarms, optimizing CSPD staff-time.

In a later stage, this program could be tied to the permitting process for building renovations, so that CSPD would know when a building was likely getting an upgrade to its security system. This would allow CSPD to initiate a conversation about remote access whenever a renovation takes place. CSPD could mention the IT standards the City of Colorado Springs recommends, and invite residents to design to those standards if possible. Participating in this program would potentially allow future remote access for CSPD, and it’s possible that participation could save the building owner on their insurance.

Over time, this project could tie-in with the Smart Streetlight Strategy, which may include some safety and security infrastructure. Street-light-mounted systems can alert officers to crimes in real time, directing first responders and police to traffic accidents to violent crime, improving response time.

Figure 3: Law enforcement officials reviewing Camera Pool footage in the Minneapolis Fusion Center.

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Case Study: City of Minneapolis & SecuroNet Virtual Safety Network The Minneapolis SecuroNet Virtual Safety Network Figure 4: Online portal to the Minneapolis (VSN) is the newest crime prevention and investigation SecuroNet. for the City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District SafeZone Collaborative. The City of Minneapolis implemented this award-winning innovative software solution to consolidate surveillance footage on a virtual platform for fast and secure access.

The VSN makes external surveillance camera footage accessible, from private and public establishments, on the cloud. This solution has been proven to work to monitor large events, such as the Super Bowl, as well crowded city streets.

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The SecuroNet Camera Pool is used by investigators who review archival video data for criminal research to prevent future incidents or solve past crimes. Mineapolis residents and businesses can register exterior cameras on the Minneapolis Virtual Safety Network to partner directly with law enforcement. This partnership gives law enforcement an investigative edge and allows them to quickly communicate with residents and businesses about crimes that may have happened near the registered camera location(s). 4 How the Minneapolis VSN Camera Pool Works: • Anyone can sign up to register the locations of their external cameras with relevant contact 4 More information about this solution available at: https://mpls.securonetservices.com/splash/about.html

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information.

Investigators can then easily see which cameras might have caught something on tape — a death, robbery or kidnapping, for example.

They can pull up who owns the camera on the VSN and directly contact them for the footage.

Within 24 hours, most investigators hear back.

Users can pick and choose which registered cameras they want to stream and for how long.

Next Steps Action 1: Begin a small community outreach program as a pilot 

Internal meeting(s) on City Side involving key stakeholders, including Police, Fire, Parks and Recreation and IT.

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Work with city facility managers to pre-arrange access to their security recordings. Document what they could offer CSPD in case of an incident (abduction, terror, natural disaster).

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Explore unifying the access to City-owned cameras (across all City departments and enterprises, especially parking).

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Timeline: TBD

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: Jacob Anderson

Action 2: Develop a Template for Contact Data Base and IT Recommendations 

An Excel template for collecting and storing contact details, access path and camera information would need to be put in place, and investigate transferring the coordinates into a GIS platform.

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Develop camera IT standards to standardize future camera procurement by the city, including the standardization of hardware/software/formats, network use and data transfer, and security.

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Publish and distribute the recommended IT specifications (hardware, software, video standards).

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Timeline: TBD

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: Jacob Anderson

Action 3: Community Outreach to Develop Relationship-Based Camera Pool 

Work with city facility managers to pre-arrange access to their security recordings. Document what they could offer CSPD in case of an incident (abduction, terror, natural disaster).

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To develop buy-in from the community, the City could leverage relationships with high-visibility stakeholders within the community such the Olympic Museum, The Broadmoor Hotel and the Downtown Partnership to help develop and implement the program. Leverage SW Downtown reconstruction as a ´living laboratory´ for the pool, and move soon to the high-crime areas.

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Timeline: TBD

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: Jacob Anderson

Action 4: Implement a Multi-Agency Command Center 

Select a tool, such as the SecuroNet Virtual Safety Network, to develop an up-to-date (and regularly updated) map and database of these resources, with access points and camera angles.

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Work with Panasonic to design and implement room where real-time video sourced from various City and private cameras, can flow to an CSPD in real-time.

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Work with Panasonic to develop an evidence management system.

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Work with Panasonic to design artificial intelligence capabilities to monitor the footage from the camera pool based on pre-programmed alarms, to reduce demand on CSPD staff-time.

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Meeting(s) with Panasonic CityNOW, step-by-step investigation of contractual, financial and other critical issues.

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Timeline: TBD

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: Jacob Anderson

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Panasonic CityNOW Coordinator: Wesley Cowsert

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Open Data Policy and Program

IN PROGRESS Open Data Policy and Program

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As Is Description The Pillar Process facilitated discussions about the ongoing Open Data Initiative in Colorado Springs. This initiative is a current project driven and owned by the City of Colorado Springs Citizen Engagement Services. In this section, we summarize the status based on these conversations, and suggest a strategic approach for future next steps within the frame of SmartCOS goals of improving resiliency and safety.

A Smart City is all about leveraging the power of data to improve the decision-making process, to allow the City to react faster in cases where the City needs to react, to make predictions where the City can save money or provide a better service, and to gain a more informed perspective of what's happening in the city. Most cities already have most of the data that is needed run a smart city. The data are available, but not usefully distributed. Therefore, by finding ways to better manage the data, and by gaining a better understanding of what the data means, The City can take a huge step forward in its journey to becoming a Smart City.

Open data initiatives can be powerful vehicles in engaging with the community. Crowd-sharing its intelligence can be an inspiring resource in the Smart City movement. The collaborative problem solving required to address the issues of the future is predicated on the availability of the unique data that the City owns. OpenDataCOS is the Open Data program of the City of Colorado Springs. It is intended to build trust with the community by publishing high-value open data—that is, public data that is machine readable, downloadable in bulk, free of cost, and free of license.

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Anticipated Value of Solution Intended participants are transparency activists, entrepreneurs, civic hackers, app developers, community advocates, local startups, and anyone who can benefit from the valuable data that the City stewards.

Expected benefits include partnerships with the community to address local issues, better outcomes from elected officials making decisions based on data & evidence, innovative applications built on City data, and facilitation of Smart City technology based on an improved stance toward public and non-public data.

OpenDataCOS is about leveraging public data to allow transparency in government, innovation around civic challenges, and new economic opportunities for Colorado Springs and beyond.

Urgency to Move Forward Large scale emergency situations often quickly expose a city’s limited resources: municipalities face more 911 calls than they could possibly field, more ravaged buildings than they could possibly repair, and more residents in need of help than they could possibly reach. Using data-driven emergency response, cities can maximize the value of the resources they do possess.

Disseminating data and tools to residents and first responders helped the community work together. During Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the cities of Houston and Miami pulled information from a variety of sources to release flooding estimates, flood maps, storm surge information, evacuation routes. Then, during the recovery phase, the cities released updates on the status of city services, published an online power outage tracker, and transit routes as they resumed service.

The successes and missed opportunities in the response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are an apt reminder of the value of open-data initiatives in emergency management.

In addition to emergency management, the use of IoT devices across the City will generate large volumes of data. Some of this data will need to be protected; some will be public and useful for community problem solving. To leverage the community’s capacity for addressing the future, it will be crucial to provide public data proactively, intentionally, and with respect for privacy rights.

Framework for Anticipated Solution The City of Colorado Springs presently publishes financial data in open formats as a proof-of-concept as the first iteration of open data. This initiative, called OpenBookCOS, provides financial transparency by a monthly automated publication from the City’s financial system to a public-facing visualization website where users can interact with and explore City financial data.

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Implementing the OpenDataCOS vision involves acquiring a platform for this purpose, but it also involves evaluating the City’s inventory of data and making difficult policy decisions about its use. These policy decisions underlie the open data offering and support appropriate publication of datasets while safeguarding the privacy, security, and other concerns related to data.

Next Steps Action 1: Form support teams 

Establish quarterly meetings with City staff data owners to identify topics and datasets for publication.

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Establish quarterly meetings with interested community members to understand the community’s interest in topics and City datasets.

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Timeline: Next 2 months (April – May 2018)

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: Jacob Anderson

Action 2: Expand community awareness & appetite for open government data 

Leverage community gatherings, events, and other speaking opportunities to encourage use and adoption of the open data offerings

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Support statewide and national open data efforts, amplifying the impact by aligning to standards where applicable.

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Create content to share on traditional and social media, supporting the adoption of open data as a platform for improved community problem solving, transparency, and government efficiency.

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Host issue-oriented community sessions (“hack nights,” “datajams,” etc.) to demonstrate the value of data to addressing 21st-century civic needs.

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Timeline: Next 6 months (April – May 2018)

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: Jacob Anderson

Action 3: Grow the OpenDataCOS catalog 

Publish high-value datasets in accordance with staff and community priorities.

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Continue to seek guidance from support teams, monitoring rates of use for published data and requests for data not yet published. Use these requests as indicators of community interest in data topics.

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Achieve high benchmarks against comparable communities by publishing datasets to address frequent data requests (ex: Open Knowledge Foundation’s Open Data Census).

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Present high-level summary of performance in an OpenDataCOS annual report.

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Timeline: Next 24 months (April 2018– April 2020)

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: Jacob Anderson

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Smart Parking, including Safety and Other Services

IN PROGRESS Smart Parking, including Safety and Other Services

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As Is Description The City of Colorado Springs is seeking to establish a new smart streets framework to improve convenience and experience for residents and visitors through automated infrastructure that support community communications, transit and tourist services. The City seeks to increase revenue with low capital investment initiatives, by taking advantage of existing technology today and setting a better technology baseline for the future.

Smart Parking offers several cross-agency benefits, on top of more effective use of labor and securing a significant increase in parking revenue without raising parking fees. The Panasonic partner for Smart Parking, MPS, has solid facts on significant benefits from 20 deployments in cities across the United States, and other countries.

The City wants to leverage existing efforts where projects are going on, and take advantage of the opportunity to embed sensors and tools to achieve broader city goals. For example, parking meter s can pick up humidity and roadway temperature to inform snow removal.

In this sense, initial meetings with COS stakeholders and MPS have taken place as part of this Pillar Process, with good momentum to continue investigating if and how to pursue. The South West downtown development, a ‘living laboratory’ for innovation and pilots, could be one location to test smart parking in an impactful way.

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Anticipated Value of Solution The anticipated population of growth of Colorado Springs and the increase in tourism, especially with the new Olympic Museum, will put added stress on city services and infrastructure including: parking, safety, traffic, convenience, safety. Limited city funds and limited city staff resources require solutions that will accommodate infrastructure modernization by doing more with less, and improving the overall utilization of city assets.

A smart parking solution will support several city goals: 

Improved parking turnover for merchants.

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Improved parking compliance by public.

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Improved enforcement and consumer fairness with automated processes.

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Improved parking revenue at less cost.

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Improved flexibility for parking rates, hours of service, enforcement.

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Improved pricing flexibility for time of day, special events and congestion pricing.

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Significant impact on public safety and crime resolution support.

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Street point sale capabilities for city services including parking, safety, transit & event payments.

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Media for public service announcements: parking fees, street sweeping, alerts, city messages.

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911 Communications.

Urgency to Move Forward The City of Colorado Springs is currently implementing a rejuvenation project through a public-private partnership near the Olympic Museum. The neighborhood around the museum is envisioned to become a playground to pilot smart city infrastructure before it is deployed to the rest of the City.

It would be timely, therefore, to including the wiring for power, data and fiber optics communications, before construction begins. Planning smart parking into the design would allow for early testing, implementation and public orientation of new technologies to fine tune before a full city roll out.

Moving forward in a contained environment will allow city administration to test the infrastructure and fine tune the requirements while increasing city revenues from improved compliance can help to pay for added services of other Smart City initiatives.

Framework for Anticipated Solution The proposed solution is a ready-to-deploy smart parking service from MPS, based on a shared revenue model and low or no initial cost for the city, with five to ten-year contract terms. For the city garages, the City would purchase of new garage/lot kiosks and pay stations, and MPS would license the software and maintenance.

The solution under discussion includes 200 real time connected kiosks in the streets in Southwest Downtown, as well as parking garage automation with same integrated technology. In the city garage, the solution

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proposed includes the automation of 400 street parking spaces with auto enforcement and auto permit / prepayment touchless parking, and mobile parking application and permit matching.

Smart parking meters would include several embedded city services, including: 

Public service announcement and alerts

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Added evidence and enforcement data

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Merchant ads

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911 communication button.

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Multi-lingual support

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Mobile application acceptance

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Transit and tourism payment systems

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Merchant validation opportunity.

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600+ police surveillance cameras

On the back-end, the solution would include an analytic dashboard to better understand traffic patterns, parking usage, rate analytics, touchless parking acceptance.

Next Steps Action 1: Ideation/cross departmental agreement consensus 

Continue the proactive stakeholder alignment and assemble team.

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Initiate a more formal dialogue between MPS and COS on a first deployment.

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Timeline: Next 3 months (April – June 2018)

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Timeline: TBD

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: TBD

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Panasonic CityNOW Coordinator/ Partner: Tom Hudson (MPS)

Action 2: Layout initial design and implementation plan 

Schedule RFP and plan implementation (permits, and contractors).

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Schedule cabling coincident with Southwest Downtown renewal project.

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Timeline: Complete planning by July 2018

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Timeline: TBD

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: TBD

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Panasonic CityNOW Coordinator/ Partner: Tom Hudson (MPS)

Action 3: Implementation 

Select contractor and implement solution in Southwest Downtown.

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Timeline: Implement on 3rd Quarter 2018

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: TBD

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Action 4: Public Education / Orientation 

Prepare and schedule citizen engagement.

Smart Kiosks

IN PROGRESS Smart Kiosks

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As Is Description While long-term projects are foundational to smart city successes, it is also important to consider the pragmatic, wins that can create momentum and enthusiasm among stakeholders. Smart Digital Kiosks present a less complex but high return on-investment, and can be a proof-of concept success to help coax support for deeper infrastructure improvements. In fact, kiosks can be a selfsustaining platform: they may provide recurring revenue stream to the city, and require no capital or operational investment from the city.

easy

Smart kiosks help cities and business improvement districts connect with citizens and visitors in dynamic new ways. Kiosks work as a system of vivid, durable touchscreen displays containing applications to enhance the

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pedestrian experience, helping people move throughout the city, and enrichening their daily life, hopefully allowing them to discover things to do and experience that they otherwise may not have known about.

Smart kiosks provide a wide menu of possible options, including smart transit shelters, wayfinding signage, building or district directories, emergency messaging, media ad sales and smart mirrors. The kiosks can provide free WiFi, can help provide real-time updates on traffic with a radar system that monitors activity, and can include sensors for local micro-climate information such as pollen count and air-quality. The real value in smart kiosks is that they can be placed on city streets, and do not rely on people’s individual devices, functioning like a large public smart-phone anyone can use.

The long-term vision for Smart Kiosks is to provide a way to consolidate all smart street functions, becoming digital connection points for self-driving cars, parking meters, bus tickets – any service a citizen may need.

Interactive kiosks and/or mobility shelters are affordable and easy-to-use citizen engagement tools can be implemented quickly (within a few months). They can be customized to reflect a location’s use cases and requirements. Updating of content is agile can be managed in real-time by a set of stakeholders through a cloud platform with individual usernames and passwords. Models and brands vary. Kiosks can be placed inside or outside, and can be self-contained or wall-mounted.

As part of their commercial deployment, kiosk solution providers provide a content player software as well as cloud-hosted content management console that packages applications for different built-in functionalities such as directory, events, attractions, transit options, etc. Kiosk providers configure the kiosks, offer subscriptions to different services and/or content, pre-built content templates, data analytics, and training and/or video tutorials for staff. Upgrading is agile and takes place through a base software platform for scalability and deployment.

Figure 5: Outdoor kiosks can provide wayfinding and advertising solutions, as well as other services, including cell-phone charging and 911 emergency support.

Figure 6: Four Winds Interactive and Transit Screen both offer indoor kiosk solutions.

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Figure 7: Wall-mounted indoor kiosks.

Anticipated Value of Solution The City of Colorado Springs is currently investigating ways to use signage to enhance and futurize the city brand and promote the SmartCOS initiative. Smart Kiosks are easy to use and provide an opportunity to accomplish several Smart City goals: Branding. Celebrate Team USA Olympic accomplishments, building the Olympic City USA branding into city streets, as well as improving wayfinding to tourist attractions and parks.

Engage. Interact with the community and visitors through fun city survey and promote local events, accomplishments, and City Services via a community notice board. Real-time messaging can be deployed through screen customization, message banners and on-screen video with audio options.

Wayfinding. Display directories, maps, real-time traffic conditions, and public transportation and ridesharing wait times.

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Resiliency. Deliver real-time emergency alerts and provide two-way communications with local police, fire and other public services through safety features, such as a 911 button. Use cases include guiding residents to the nearest evacuation routes in case of an emergency, helping the community find a lost child, and alerting residents about incliment weather.

Economic Development. Offer directions and promote local businesses. Display specials offered by local restaurants that day.

Generate Revenue. Viable business-model in terms of costs thorugh revenue-sharing model.

Kiosks generate significant advertising revenue and can quickly disseminate targeted announcements and advertising to citizens as they pass through the street environment.

Connect. Smart Kiosk are generally connected to a fiber network, and can therefore provide convenient hyper-local Wi-Fi hot spots. Free Wi-Fi is increasingly expected by residents and visitors as part of a Smart City vision.

Urgency to Move Forward Smart Kiosks provide an easy win for the city and can be first physical manifestation of the SmartCOS initiative on the streets of Colorado Springs. Average kiosk lead times range from 4 to 12 weeks. Multiple factors including customization of enclosure, software enhancements and the number of kiosks being ordered affect turnaround time.

Framework for Anticipated Solution As per initial discussions with the City, an outdoor smart kiosk solution for Colorado Springs would require fiber deployment, and a cloud-based content management to tailor messaging by location. The financial models for the anticipated Kiosks is a license model to use the cloud-platform and drive content on it from data sources decided on by the City of Colorado Springs and its stakeholders. Initial deployment of the solution would be Downtown, along Tejon Street. Deployment would then take place throughout the city, starting with bus stops, then schools, parks and colleges/universities. Minimum key use cases to be enabled would include: 

Digital signage to improve visitor and resident experience.

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Engage with citizens and residents using push-based notifications.

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Support wayfinding and display transit information.

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Support emergency management and evacuations.

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Possibly, hyper-local Wi-Fi hot spot in kiosk vicinity.

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Data analytics platform to monetize advertisement revenue.

Figure 8: Smart transit shelters currently being tested at Peña Station Next, adjacent to Panasonic CityNOW Headquarters.

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Case Studies: How to Monetize the Kiosk Assets There are many lessons learned that can be picked up from the many innovative ways the private sector has been approaching Smart Kiosks as a way of stretching budgets and saving time for a diverse set of clients.

Retail kiosks can provide customers with access to more items while reducing on-hand inventory and warehouse costs. Users can browse merchandise and purchase items directly from the kiosk. Self-order kiosks give consumers control of their shopping or dining experience. By leveraging self-order kiosks, stores and restaurants enable their customers to choose when and how they want to order, pay for and receive the products.

These private sector use cases could provide cities with templates by which to efficiently provide 24-7 services for a variety of city services, including ticket purchases for transportation, city attractions, as well as licenses and other “paperwork�.

Figure 9: Private sector has learned to save money and increase revenues offering services through retail kiosks.

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ENERGY & UTILITIES PILLAR Figure 10: Kansas City hopes to bring interactive kiosks to its poorer neighborhood to help spur Drake Coal Plant economic development.

Case Study: Kansas City, Missouri Just last year, in 2017, Kansas City, Missouri, began experimenting with smart technologies by installing a system of 25 interactive outdoor kiosks along the downtown streetcar route.

The kiosks are designed to display advertising and provide new funding for the city’s “Visit Kansas City” economic development initiative, Kansas City Streetcar Authority and the Kansas City Area Development Council (KCADC).

The kiosks offer information about route and location streetcar vehicle, specials offered by local restaurants day, and times theater, arts and sporting events are scheduled. There is a 911 button to report emergencies and ways to report problems with city services to the 311 Action Center. The kiosks aslo provide hyper-local Wi-Fi connectivity. 5

that

Next Steps Action 1: City will investigate deployment of smart kiosks. 

Continue and widen proactive stakeholder alignment.

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To continue the dialogue with Panasonic and its partners to further articulate and assess the framework for an initial deployment in the South West downtown development.

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Timeline: TBD

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: TBD

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Panasonic CityNOW Coordinator: John Greenwood.

Action 2: Airport will investigate deployment of smart kiosks. 

Internal meeting to build on in-house advertising agency capacities.

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Continue the dialogue with Panasonic and its partners to further articulate and assess the framework for an actual pilot development

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Timeline: TBD

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Airport Coordinator: TBD

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Panasonic CityNOW Coordinator: John Greenwood.

5 http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article64547422.html

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IoT Management Console

ASPIRATIONAL IoT Management Console

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As Is Description This section on managing the Internet of Things (IoT) is a primer for managing the many Smart City systems coming together in a highly connected city. This section should be read as an inspirational framework for the world of the possible, as well as suggested path forward for managing the risks associated with a highly connected future.

From remotely adjusting the heat and light in buildings to automated manufacturing lines, the technology known as the Internet of Things (IoT) that enables wireless communications between networked devices is becoming more and more prevalent in everyday life. Managing IoT requires detecting and mapping the location of devices connected to the Internet.

Businesses have developed a great deal of interest in the new IoT product ecosystems which have been made possible by the cloud, increased computing power and lower technology costs. IoT is an emerging technology space, not only in the consumer arena, but also managing industrial controls in manufacturing and retail services, and even includes the ecosystem related to connected cars.

IoT devices generally communicate through an open, global wireless standard, which provides a foundation for enabling “smart” devices to work together to improve comfort and efficiency. These devices send out a signal beacon to communicate with each other through radio signals. There are leading-edge solutions now available

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in the market that can detect and collect the GPS coordinates of IoT devices, and identify what those devices do through their radio frequency, and then map the IoT footprint of an urban environment.

Figure 11: The city of Austin, Texas is working with drones and technology provider Praetorian to better understand the current level of IoT device adoption in the city and how to better manage this ecosystem of devices.

Anticipated Value of Solution IoT Management is the brain of a complex digital neurological system that is Smart City, and many cities worldwide are working on creative solutions to the challenge of managing large amounts of highly connected devices. Deploying a framework that works for the community of Colorado Springs in terms of cost, efficiency and ease of deployment and everyday use, is an opportunity for the brand SmartCOS as forward leaning city.

Seeking the involvement of a community treasure such as the National Cybersecurity Center would not only provide greater knowledge on how to secure IoT networks from those who seek to exploit them for nefarious reasons, but would also transform the challenge as an economic development and branding opportunity for the City as an internationally known hub for cybersecurity solutions. This effort would be well-supported by the annual Cybersecurity Conference that takes place at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs.

Large organizations and venture-backed startups working in emerging technologies need a hub for information ”I don’t know that much about cyber, but I do think that’s the number one problem with mankind.”

— Warren Buffet

security assessment and advisory services. Setting up active collaboration between the National Cybersecurity Center, the City and Utilities could present a forward-leaning partnership in which the local cybersecurity community can lean-in to identify risks and vulnerabilities in networks or applications and use city operations as a living lab.

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Having a cybersecurity and resiliency framework in place for IoT would allow the City and Utilities to safely experiment with use cases, optimizing efficiency and unlocking savings in the use of resources.

Interacting with IoT will feel a lot like interacting with cell phones. This kind of interaction is called a digital / hybrid network. A world filled with IoT devices will be highly interactive, similar to a suggestion to watch a video we like on YouTube or ad suggestions from Google or Facebook – only these suggestions will more physical – places to go to, make purchases and interact with other people.

Urgency to Move Forward Colorado Springs is not currently experiencing the pain point of managing a lot of IoT devices. However, this presents an opportunity to be strategic about the City’s approach before the problem appears, since the future promises highly connected infrastructure and equipment.

The City of Colorado Springs is currently in talks with Panasonic to implement a pilot for a connected vehicle platform. The intersection between vehicle connectivity and digital/physical safety presents a unique opportunity for engineers to advance their cybersecurity solutions. Testing one of the nation’s first connected vehicle platforms in the city home to the National Cybersecurity Center is an amazing opportunity that can position the City of Colorado Springs as a Smart City Laboratory -- and an international level reference case in the Smart City sector.

Framework for Anticipated Solution Colorado Springs is very well positioned to take on this challenging project. The City has already been working with several vendors, that solve some problems but not all problems. The City is assessing if the tools used now point in the right direction moving forward. Specifically, the City is exploring the potential scalability of current solutions, both in terms of ability to handle large volumes of data and devices, as well evaluating what tools and capabilities will be required moving forward.

As the City continues to monitor evolving needs, and continues collecting more and more data, it will be important to analyze the protocols in the data and take on a thorough security analysis to better understand the risks.

Next steps should include identifying and enumerating the current IoT networks and devices already deployed in the city, and understanding what their functions are and could be. The City can thus identify what are the key stakeholders that should be involved in a holistic approach to an IoT management console solution for the city of Colorado Springs.

As Colorado Springs prepares to think through the City and Utility strategy for managing IoT, one approach that Panasonic suggests for Colorado Springs is the inclusion of a physical multi-stakeholder `Multi-Agency Command Center´ for resilience, safety and security. This center would be integrated with the Camera Pool efforts, allowing room staff access to cameras around the city to improve the efficiency of the deployed solutions for the tasks at hand.

The Command Center would co-locate employees of CSU, the City of Colorado Springs, City Transit, and other key stakeholders within this facility. The Command Center would serve as both an integrated base of during normal and emergency operations, as well as a high-visibility marketing tool within the community. While

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having an integrated command post and impactful marketing tool can provide great benefit, this shared-space environment could ultimately serve to create long-term bonds between all stakeholders through the daily commingling of colleagues, organizations, and shared interests. A proposed layout for the Command Center is depicted in the figure below.

Figure 12: A Proposed Layout for a Multi-Agency Command Center for Colorado Springs.

A display wall could be utilized to show an integrated view of critical real-time operations data for all key stakeholders. Key personnel from CSU, the City of Colorado Springs, City Transit and other agencies, such as the Colorado Springs Office of Emergency Management, could analyze data real-time and make coordinated decisions.

As an example of how an integrated and centralized system could work in the event of an emergency, the City of Colorado Springs could identify hazards utilizing video feeds from the cameras in the camera pool, as well as those installed on the Smart Streetlights, Smart Parking Meters. The City of Colorado Springs could identify designated `safe areas’, and send location-specific messaging to smart kiosks and smart parking meters, which could clearly display evacuation routes or congregation areas.

CSU could route power away from distribution lines near those hazards to avoid additional instability on the distribution network. CSU could ensure power was available via microgrids in `safe areas’, and City Transit could optimize a transit route to transport people out of danger zones and send aid into zones where needed.

The Command Center would be tied into the community microgrids to ensure continued operations, and provide `safe areas’ and their surrounding communities a location to gather to charge their phones and communicate in the event of a natural disaster or an emergency.

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During normal operations, CSU could utilize the Command Center as a control center for the various distributed energy resources deployed within Colorado Springs to ensure safe and optimal operation through a Network Operating Platform as described below.

The Network Operating Platform (NOP), as depicted in the figure below, should be an integrated hardware and software platform that provides data and energy management capabilities.

The NOP becomes most valuable as an all-encompassing platform because all three services would be interdependent: 

Mobility

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Site: demand charge reduction, site upgrade deferral, PV self-consumption, savings, energy arbitrage, and back-up power supply.

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Grid: demand response, distribution upgrade deferral, renewable integration, resource adequacy, and frequency regulation.

Figure 13: Depiction of a High-level Network Operating Platform Architecture.

Use Case: IoT for Environmental Sensing Cities often lack the ability to accurately measure and take targeted actions to mitigate emissions where they are occurring over time. Environmental sensors are improving and consolidating, and can now be embedded in smart streetlight as well as smart parking meters.

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Advanced sensor "pods" such as the University of Chicago / Argonne National Labs "Array of Things" sensor pod can track air pollution, ozone levels, temperature, humidity, magnetic field, ambient noise levels, and other data that have the potential to measure the “health” of a city.

Cities can benefit from installing a variety of sensors to measure and enforce environmental regulations. For example, ambient noise in downtown areas can also present a challenge to city center residents. Sensors can remotely monitor and automatically enforce environmental code violations, generating city revenue, improving environmental quality, and reducing complaints.

From a resiliency perspective, IoT for environmental sensing at street level can help optimize the deployment of weather information to more accurately dispatch road maintenance and snow plows to respond to rapidly changing weather conditions or set-off early warning smoke alarms in case of wildfires. Having real-time information can help use city resources more efficiently and get citizens moving to the right places, as needed.

Next Steps The Colorado Springs community will need to work together, both from the City and Utilities perspective, to anticipate risks and deliver on a community approach to safety, cybersecurity and resiliency.

The path forward with this project is fourfold: 

Recognize and identify IoT risks or threats.

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Push to cooperate politically and align within and across agencies.

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Develop a framework for a cybersecurity strategy.

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Consider the implementation of a ´Multi-Agency Command Center´.

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4. TRANSPORTATION & MOBILITY PILLAR SmartCOS Transportation and Mobility Vision The vision of Colorado Springs for transportation and mobility is to promote the local economy by providing businesses, residents, and visitors with options that enable seamless and efficient mobility across all modes of transportation, and by providing quality infrastructure and innovative solutions that reduce traffic congestion and emissions, promote downtown residential density, improve public safety, and enhance quality of life.

Colorado Springs is currently developing its new Comprehensive Plan - a guide for future physical development of the City. As part of this effort, the City has identified certain areas of the City as "changing neighborhoods" areas that have the potential or need for change due to past disinvestment and underutilization - and are prime areas to focus redevelopment incentives. These "changing neighborhoods” encompass 12,000 acres and are home to 74,000 residents. A well-planned built environment improves the quality of life for all citizens, not just those who reside in the "changing neighborhoods" The City has identified in its Strategic Plan measures of success for infill, affordable housing and walkability. These include: 

reducing vacant acreage by 300 acres by 2020,

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increasing the ratio of infill projects under construction to all projects by 25% by 2020,

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increasing the 80903 zipcode walkscore over 54, and

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increasing the number of affordable housing units by 10% by 2020.

Denser and more walkable and bikeable neighborhoods will reduce car-dependency, improve adoption of public transit, improve accessibility, and lower the burden of housing costs, directly correlating to a higher quality of life for the citizens of Colorado Springs.

Transportation & Mobility Pillar Ideas The Transportation and Mobility Pillar project ideas that have percolated and been prioritized during the Pillar Process as of today are: 

Improve Visitor & Resident Experience at Garden of the Gods

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Smart Transportation and Mobility Plan for COS

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Connected Vehicle Platform

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Payment Platform for Public Transport

Some ideas are foundational to the SmartCOS overall strategy, such as the Connected Vehicle Platform which is supported by the Smart Streetlight Strategy (Energy Pillar) and forms the conduit for Fleet Management and

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Asset Management initiatives, and longer-term could help support a distributed generation strategy leveraging data on available electric vehicle battery capacities.

Other ideas are urgent for conservation reasons, such as the Garden of the Gods traffic reduction program, which is a complex undertaking composed of variety of different sub-problems including traffic management, public transport, smart parking, and crowd-management.

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Improve Visitor & Resident Experience at Garden of the Gods

IN PROGRESS Improve Visitor & Resident Experience at Garden of the Gods

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As Is Description The Pillar Process has facilitated repeated discussions across city agencies on the topic of reducing traffic congestion and improving the visitor’s experience in the Garden of Gods Park. It is an ongoing project under the leadership of the City Parks and Recreation Department. In this section, we suggest some best practices based on these conversations, and we suggest a strategic approach for programmatic goal-oriented planning.

Garden of the Gods Park, owned and managed by the City Colorado Springs with support from the Garden of Gods Foundation, is characterized by vertical red rock geological formations. Designated a National Natural Landmark in 1971, visitors coming to the park frequent its many attractions and services including the Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center.

of

Attracting almost six million visitors annually, the Park is the region’s most popular destination.

In recent years, as visitation has risen, the City has witnessed high congestion, particularly on summer weekends. This congestion has led to vehicle queueing outside the entrance gate to the main parking lot for approximately one mile.

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Concerned with the visitor experience as well as the impact this congestion is having on the park itself, the City is exploring options for better managing the congestion and sheer numbers of visitors to Garden of the Gods Park even as it ensures access to the park remains free.

Garden of the Gods Quick Facts 

An estimated 5.8 million visitors traveled through Garden of the Gods in 2017

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Over 1 million visitors stopped at the Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center in 2017 (an 82% increase from 2013 to 2016)

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8,000 vehicles went through the Garden per day during peak summer season (equals 650 vehicles per hour) and 20,000 visitors per day based on 2.5 persons per vehicle

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2.5 hours on average visitors spent in the Garden.

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728 available parking spaces (within the Garden, Trading Post, Visitor and Nature Center, Rock Ledge Ranch)

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An average of 450 parking spaces short during the summer and up to 600 short during peak times.

Anticipated Value of Solution This project aims to improve the visitor experience while protecting Garden of the Gods Park. To enhance the experience, the City is taking a comprehensive approach targeting both the conservation of the park’s beauty for enjoyment by future generations, as well as current problems with road congestion. Vehicular congestion not only hinders park visitors from having a relaxing experience, but also diminishes the quality of life for residents in the neighborhoods adjacent to the park. Through the implementation of a several initiatives, the City Parks and Recreation Department seeks to accomplish the following goals: •

Increase number of visitors without negative side effects.

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Ensure all visitors have a world-class experience.

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Reduce traffic congestion within and surrounding the park.

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Improve traffic flow without building additional roadways.

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Increase safety for all visitors, regardless of transportation mode.

•

Mitigate private vehicle environmental impact on the park’s ecology.

Urgency to Move Forward Americans visit national parks to get away from the noise of modern life, and enjoy the fresh air. Sadly, poor air quality is becoming a trend in parks across the United States, with the haze blocking what should be spectacular landscape views6. A series of studies by the National Parks Conservation Association over the last decade have 6 https://psmag.com/nature-and-technology/air-pollution-national-parks

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traced back the air pollution in parks to cars, as well as gas, oil, and coal-burning power plants - both inside and outside the protected areas. Parks with high, concentrated visitor counts are especially prone to high ozone levels, which tend to be worst in the summer—Garden of the God’s high season—because ozone is created near the ground when emissions from vehicles interact with sunlight.

Colorado Springs Utilities has already taken an important step forward in protecting the air of Colorado Springs by installing emissions-scrubbing technology on Drake Coal Power Plant. However, the City, in collaboration community, is looking to take further actions to protect not only the park’s air, but also the visitor experience, whose quality is threatened by the vehicular congestion inside and outside the park.

Framework for Anticipated Solution To address the congestion concerns, the City of Colorado Springs Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department requested the assistance of the U.S. Department of Transportation Volpe Center to develop preliminary concepts for a shuttle system to service Garden of the Gods Park.

Between July 12 and 13, 2017, Volpe traveled to Colorado Springs to conduct a site visit of Garden of the Gods Park and meet with a core project team and key stakeholders to gather important information on visitation, congestion issues, and priorities for developing a shuttle system and managing parking.

Over the course of three weeks in August 2017, the Friends of Garden of the Gods collected about 350 survey responses at three park destinations: the Visitor Center, Balanced Rock and the Central Garden area. Some highlights of the survey results are noted below: 

54% were visiting the park for the first time

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67% were from somewhere beyond the Colorado Springs/Denver area

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5% were international travelers

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75% said they would be very likely or likely to use a shuttle service if available

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60% said they would be willing to spend up to $5.00 for a shuttle service.

Having carefully reviewed the findings of the Volpe study, the City Parks and Recreation Department is working on a comprehensive solution composed of several elements, all of which are currently consideration and analysis: 

New ADA accessible trail. Suggested trail would be along the north side of Gateway Road.

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Expanded parking at Rock Ledge Ranch. The City is considering adding 400 spaces total. A decision remains to be taken on whether a soft surface parking surface will be implemented for minimal impact to the site, or if a low-impact parking structure can be constructed. The decision will depend on funding available, and if parking will be free or a small fee should be charged.

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Off-site parking with a shuttle drop-off at the park. Possible parking locations include Coronado High School, Holmes Middle School, Verizon (at 30th Street and Garden of the Gods Road), County Garage (on Garden of the Gods Road), HP building (on Garden of the Gods Road), vacant lot next to the

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Navigators. The decision will depend on funding available, and if parking will be free or a small fee should be charged. 

New shuttle service within the Park. Shuttle would circulate between Rock Ledge Ranch, Garden of the Gods Visitor Center and Garden of the Gods Park. Three shuttle routes are under consideration, Gateway Road Circulator (1.2 miles roundtrip), Juniper Way Loop (3.8 miles roundtrip), and Barbell Route throughout Park (6.5 miles roundtrip).



Program specific days or times to be “vehicle free” within the Park – only non-motorized access allowed.

The City has not yet decided if what type of vehicle should be used to implement the shuttle solutions, and has not yet determined if the shuttle use should be mandatory or voluntary, it will be free or a small fee should be charged.

or if

The City is considering several vehicle options including a bus, van or tram. The City is interested in exploring forward leaning mobility solutions, including an electric vehicle shuttle since it would be quiet and emissions free.

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Another option that is perhaps a few years ahead on the horizon is the possibility of implementing autonomous shuttles on the loops through a provider such as EasyMile. Autonomous vehicles are a driverless electric transportation solution combining three different location and detection technologies: GPS, visual guidance through LIDAR, and SLAM technology. The autonomous vehicles have a capacity to transport up to 12 people each and run on pre-programed paths with pre-determined stops. Their large windows would allow everyone on board to enjoy the beautiful views of Garden of the Gods Park.

The City has decided to take an explorative approach to engage citizens over the next couple of years within the visionary and key components laid out by Parks and Recreation.

Next Steps Action 1: Program specific days or times for the park to be “vehicle free” 

Internal meeting(s) on City Side involving key stakeholders.

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Prepare and schedule citizen engagement and inform the public about the initiative.

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Pilot specific “vehicle free” days or times, experiment, document results and analyze data.

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Timeline: Next 6 months (April – September 2018)

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: TBD

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Smart Transportation and Mobility Plan for COS

IN PROGRESS Smart Transportation and Mobility Plan for COS

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As Is Description The Pillar Process facilitated repeated discussions across city agencies concerning a Smart City approach to developing a Transportation Plan. This is an ongoing project under the leadership of the City Transportation Department. In this section, we suggest some best practices based on these conversations, and we suggest a strategic approach for programmatic goal-oriented planning.

A smart city uses information and communications technology to enhance its livability, walkability, sustainability, and economic development. As such, the new paradigm for urban mobility starts by considering mobility as a shared instrumented, interconnected ondemand service.

Examples of Mobility as a Service “Mobility as a Service” describes a shift away from personally-owned modes of transportation and towards mobility solutions that are consumed as a service.

Ride-Sharing Apps (Uber, Lyft) • Car Sharing (ZipCar, Car2Go) • E-Bike Sharing (UberMOTO, GrabBike) • Pop-up Transit Systems (Bridj) • Transit Payment Apps (Masabi) • Multi-Modal Trip Planning Apps (OpenTripPlanner)

Smart mobility solutions should be approached as multi-disciplinary systems. This need for integration requires a cross-departmental approach where the City of Colorado Springs and Colorado Springs Utility join forces. Collaboration is key since the decisions of one

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silo will impact the available options as well as the results of other ongoing or future departmental projects across both the City and the Utility.

For example, the successful deployment of electric transportation decisions, such as electric buses, will depend on available power and communications infrastructure and will impact other goals the City may have, such as shaving the peak load to support the accelerated closing of Drake coal power plant. Thinking about electric vehicle charging as a multi-disciplinary system will help the City and Utility see opportunities to solve problems in innovative ways such as powering electric buses through a clean-power micro-grid.

Autonomy will accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles because 90 percent of trips are local. Concept cars are being tested and proposed to be smaller, more aerodynamic, designed to form a platoon closely behind one another, benefiting from each other’s draft as cyclists do in a peloton.

If autonomous vehicles are shared, congestion will shrink significantly. Cars will no longer circle the block looking for a parking space – they will pick-up another passenger instead. Further, smaller, more efficient vehicles may pare road width and release land for other uses, as well as reduce the need for parking within dense urban areas.

Another example is that emergency services need real time travel condition information and optimization of signals which would be impacted by an intelligent traffic management system and connected vehicle technologies which would need to be programmed with the Fire and Police Departments consultation.

What is Colorado Springs trying to achieve with its Smart Transportation Plan?

Livability

Walkability /Bikability

Sustainability

Economic Development

Reduce traffic and congestion.

Encourage urban infill.

Reduce pollution from transport.

Improve transportation budgets.

Increase public transportation ridership.

Increase cities competitive advantage.

Reduce trip times.

Empower people with choice and control.

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Improve public safety.

Improve health and reducing obesity rates.

Attract more talent.

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A smart city strategy is built around the concept of collecting and analyzing data to make better, more transparent decisions. Data analysis can turn it into actionable information and can help make thoughtful predictions about what will happen next. Therefore, it is important to first determine what kind of data the city already has available, what new information is required and how this information will be collected.

Anticipated Value of Solution It will be important to leverage the work done across the city and utility as part of the Smart Transportation Plan. For example, the Street Light Project can help unlock traffic and parking management capabilities. Smart Cities rely on sensors to collect traffic flow data and manage both traffic signals and driver notifications to route drivers to the most efficient path to their destination. This data collection and signaling, along with standardizing vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems, is leading to a platform for vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, and eventually autonomous vehicle systems.

In the short-term, in addition to streets and arterial traffic management, Smart Parking solutions are an important cornerstone of mobility. Inefficient parking management creates broader traffic impacts, causing 30% of congestion in downtown areas. Furthermore, Smart Parking solutions lead to direct savings for the City. A large portion of city budget and staff resources may be dedicated to parking enforcement. Video- or sensorenforced parking can enhance parking revenue 4 to 5 times, opening the opportunity for revenue sharing arrangements. Additionally, these smart solutions can offer policy-driven opportunities for more effective parking management through dynamic pricing.

The Smart Transportation Plan will need to review the City’s transit infrastructure in relationship to the City’s development needs and amenities. The plan will actively seek to promote solutions to positively impact walkability and livability. A well-rounded future-looking perspective to the City of Colorado Springs Smart Transportation Plan will take-on a problem-solving approach that will address attributes not uniformly considered in transportation plans, including funding sources (grants, Tax Credit incentives, City-offered incentives, etc.).

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COS has an obesity rate that doubled in the last 15 years. The built environment of Colorado Springs will need to change if the City wants to encourage a healthier community. Through the implementation of the solutions proposed in the Smart Transportation Plan, Colorado Springs seeks to see improvements in resident health, including a decrease in obesity rates, improved walkability of all neighborhoods, increase ADA-compliance, and an increase in life expectancy.

The City of Colorado Springs also seeks improvements in the urban experience, including an increase use in transit participation, improved density, and improved accessibility to complementary services, and an increase in property values.

The City seeks a data-driven approach to urban development, where Transportation Plan decisions are based on quantifiable impact of specific development scenarios on specific neighborhoods or blocks. City Administrators seek tools to make smart decisions and capture data with which to transparently inform local policy and planning. Administrators also seek the ability to better communicate to residents how different projects will impact their neighborhood.

“Futurist Thomas Frey made a list of what will disappear in the driverlesscar era, and at the top of that list are drivers. Drivers not wanted: taxi, Uber, FedEx, bus, truck, and town car. Also eliminated: insurance agents, auto salesmen, credit managers, insurance claims adjusters, bank lending, and traffic reporters in the news. What goes the way of the cassette tape: steering wheels, odometers, gas pedals, gas stations, AAA, and the many outlets individuals use to service their cars, from body shops to car washes.

Good riddance to: road rage, crashes, 90 percent of injuries and traffic related deaths, driving tests, getting lost, car dealers, tickets, traffic cops, and traffic jams.�

- Drawdown.

Urgency to Move Forward The City of Colorado Springs has a walk score of 36, transit score of 18, and bike score of 46, all of which are lower than many cities of its size. These numbers highlight the impact of sprawl, and the need for infill and density which needs to be supported by high-quality transit infrastructure.

If the City does not address these problems, Colorado Springs will continue to see increasing housing costs, lack of density and deterioration in the health and livability of our neighborhoods. Should the problem not be addressed, there will be a continued lack of information to those who guide policy development, as well as continued urban sprawl in a City that already spans approximately 200 square miles; the most extensive

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municipality in Colorado. Thus, development direction continues to lie with the private sector, creating a disconnected framework for land use and cohesive growth.

This lack of active control of growth over urban development creates a subset of problems, including difficulty maintaining City infrastructure, lack of public transportation, and lack of affordable housing options for Colorado Spring’s quickly growing population. Furthermore, traffic congestion hinders the pace of commerce within a city, negatively impacts citizen quality of life, and represents a major source of urban air quality pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. These problems negatively impact citizens' quality of life.

Framework for Anticipated Solution Faced a transportation sector in full transformation, and presented by vast array of changes and disruptive technologies, it is difficult to predict which technologies will fall the way of Betamax, and which will go mainstream. With this backdrop, to approach transportation planning with the traditional 20-year decision horizon would undoubtedly be a high-stakes gamble at best, and a strategic mistake a worst.

While the City is taking a very forward-leaning approach by using solutions involving additional asphalt as a solution of last-recourse, at this time, the City would be well-served by taking a much shorter-term programmatic approach with goal-oriented planning.

Instead of prescribing solutions to be procured, when selecting consulting services for the Smart Transportation Plan, the City would be best served by a results-driven approach that encourages multi-disciplinary teams to form innovative partnerships. A timeframe of 2 to 5 years could be provided to solve a menu of specific problems, and teams would be competitively selected on their technical and organizational capacity to solve these problems in such a way that they leverage the technologies being implemented across the SmartCOS initiative, such as Smart Street Lights.

Next Steps Action 1: Prioritize a list of transportation-related pain points for the City 

Internal meeting(s) on City Side involving key stakeholders.

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The City could hire a consultant as an advisor and/or appoint an in-house team to help draft a detailed menu of transportation-related pain points in Colorado Springs.

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Prioritize the list of pain-points in terms of social and/or economic development impact and resources available.

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Timeline: Next 2 months (April – May 2018)

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: TBD

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Panasonic CityNOW Coordinator: Chris Armstrong

Action 2: Issue an RFP for a Smart Transportation Plan for COS 

The City will then need to work closely with the said consultant and/or in-house team to gather the information needed to guide decisions related to future development. Much of the information needed

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to generate a "best use" identification resides within various City departments and in various external organizations. 

Issue an RFP with a shorter-term programmatic approach with goal-oriented planning, where pain points are divided between basic results expected, and aspirational results.

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Timeline: Next 3-4 months (June -July 2018)

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: TBD

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Panasonic CityNOW Coordinator: Chris Armstrong

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Connected Vehicle Platform

IN PROGRESS Connected Vehicle Platform

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As Is Description The future of connected vehicles is not only on the horizon; it is under implementation in the State of Colorado right now in the partnership between Panasonic and Colorado Department of Transportation. Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication capabilities allow vehicles to collect and share with other vehicles, roads, traffic lights, etc. in near real time (8 communications per second), to smooth traffic flow and increase safety. Combined with onboard artificial intelligence, connected vehicle communications equip cars to lean constantly and become increasingly smarter about geography, streets, situations and destinations.

data

Connected vehicle technology is currently one of the most disruptive trends within transportation and mobility sector. The technology is based on national standards issued by the US Department of Transportation that have already been adopted the automotive industry.

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The connected vehicle platform developed by Panasonic will collect detailed real-time data from vehicles in a cloud-based console that processes that data and converts it into valuable actionable information, automatically and in real-time.

Leveraging 40 years of traffic management experience in Japan and building upon the groundbreaking partnership with the Colorado Department of Transportation to create a first-of-its-kind connected vehicle platform, Panasonic’s connected vehicle and connected highway expertise can help make Colorado Springs’ highways safer, greener, less congested, and more efficient.

Furthermore, connected vehicle technology can significantly reduce emergency response times. Road safety and asphalt utilization efficiency heavily depend on collecting and analyzing data for traffic flow. Connected vehicle technology offers an effective solution for intelligent traffic flow control. Ambulances and snowplows traveling in congested roadways have long been held up by traffic congestion. A connected vehicle platform optimizes mission-critical emergency support vehicles.

Communication-capable vehicles are expected to proliferate within the next 5 years. Vehicles are expected to evolve in this direction through manufacturer software upgrades, forming a broad connected vehicle communication network, in which each vehicle is a node with a unique ID, transmitting and/or receiving data packets into other nodes within the network.

Fiber connected streetlight infrastructure is an important component of inter-vehicular communication, and streetlight controllers will be used collect and manage network resources. Smart streetlight infrastructure will therefore not only provide not only illumination, but, as importantly, will collect and discharge signaling information and support reliable communications. This system can detect potential risks in advance and provide early warnings to drivers. Therefore, the number of accidents, injuries, and delays throughout the city can be reduced.

Figure 14: Connected vehicle technology can help clear the path for emergency response vehicles for improved response times and prioritize public transportation for faster routes.

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Beyond connecting to each other, in a next phase, vehicles will also be integrated to the electric grid. Gridintegrated vehicles will be an important element of the energy transition, and support sustainability goals by optimizing the use of energy (both fuel and/or electricity). Grid-integrated vehicles will connect to the connected vehicle network so that data can be gathered for efficiency and capacity planning of the communication infrastructure, or “grid�. The network will then connect each vehicle to entities such as a fleet management platform, power utilities and manufacturers of both EVs and charging stations. These components will be the building blocks of the grid management system. Data related to individual EV usage will be of particular interest for evaluating load management.

Anticipated Value of Solution As complex, and maybe abstract, as it sounds, the potential impact from this technology is dazzling. While the technology deployment is not a light switch away; rather it will take a few years for full implementation and deployment, including roadside and in-vehicle technology. With that said, some of foreseen benefits are: Improved Safety: Significantly reduced fatal accidents and injuries.

Faster Response: Pinpointing the exact GPS location of accidents will improve emergency response times, including the capability to automatically direct cameras onto that exact location.

Increased Asphalt Utilization: Using existing lanes significantly more efficiently, will reduce

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traffic congestion and avoid expensive lane expansion.

Decreased Congestion: The capability to reroute traffic based on real-time data.

Reduces Signage Costs: Decreased need for new physical road signs. Accurate and dynamic in-vehicle communication, retrofitted, or using a securely mounted smart phone.

Data Collection: Data that can be harvested and analyzed as a traffic management tool to anticipate future needs and identify problem areas.

Resource Optimization: More efficient, dynamic and actionable interface between state operation and city operation. Optimized routes lead to decrease in labor hours.

Path Clearing: Integration with Emergency service deployments, including Police, Fire and Ambulance vehicles.

Increased Resilience: Reduced snow route clearing times during weather events, and more dynamic evacuation management during forest fires.

Urgency to Move Forward There is a unique opportunity for Colorado Springs to be an early mover in relation to connected vehicles, based on the possibility to become the city partner in the equation. Benefits for being an early mover are mainly three folded: 

Costs are lower now, not least since significant grants are available for a connected vehicle platform. As cities decide to deploy the solution in the future, these grants will not be available.



Every year a connected vehicle platform is delayed, both the direct benefits are pushed out – as well as the indirect benefits such as job creation and economic development.

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Being an early adopter with low risk, and in a solution, the city will adopt sooner or later since the State of Colorado will be adopting the solution state-wide — the value of national and international optics is very high.

Framework for Anticipated Solution The connected vehicle technology, the Panasonic platform can be viewed as an ‘Apple Store’ where services can be built by the city or by third party. Examples of services to be built are: 

Creating clear path for emergency vehicles by in-car, vehicle specific, communication, well in advance of the emergency vehicle approaching.



More efficient snow removal, by integrating other smart street technology with connected vehicle technology.

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Commercial applications based on open data in the connected vehicle platform, becoming a driver for job creation and economic growth.

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Next Steps There have been initial meetings on the connected vehicle platform project, with several stakeholders, as part of the Pillar Process. At this point, the assessment shows that Colorado Springs would be a well-suited city partner with Panasonic and CDOT, not least from a readiness perspective in relation to the actual capabilities in the COS traffic department.

Action 1: Investigate a partnership with Panasonic CityNOW and COS on Connected Vehicle Platform 

Continue the proactive stakeholder alignment within COS.



Continue the on-going mutually non-binding discussion between COS and Panasonic, including financing, resources and timelines.

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Move into a more formal dialogue between COS and Panasonic in the near future.

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Timeline: Next 2 months (April – May 2018)

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: TBD

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Panasonic CityNOW Coordinator: Chris Armstrong.

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Payment Platform for Public Transport

IN PROGRESS Payment Platform for Public Transport

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As Is Description The Pillar Process facilitated repeated discussions across city agencies concerning a Multimodal Universal Payment Platform and a City Pass for Colorado Springs. This is an ongoing project under the leadership of the City Transportation Department, that will impact other City organizations such as Parks and Recreation, Parking, and destinations throughout the city, both public and private. In this section, we suggest some best practices based on these conversations, and we suggest a strategic approach for programmatic goal-oriented planning.

There are many benefits to improving ridership of mass transit. Beyond emissions reduction, relieving traffic congestion is a key benefit. In a city poised for high population growth like Colorado Springs, mass transit can help move greater numbers of people without needing to make costly investments in widening road infrastructure.

In the case of public transport waiting in a queue or buying tickets from the bus driver slows down the use of public transport. For other activities, as well, buying tickets for city attractions, activities and services is often a time-consuming experience. There is widespread desire amongst stakeholders in Colorado Springs for a mobility and payment platform that could integrate multiple transport modes, services and region.

Furthermore, commuters, tourists, long distance or day-to-day customers have come to expect seamless, multimodal journeys.

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A payment platform enables agencies to virtualize their ticketing infrastructure, letting riders manage accounts and purchase tickets through apps, the web.

Multi-modal payment platforms could transform public transportation and city services as we know them through integrated payments, offering an improved user experience through multi-modal end-to-end travel chains that include first and last mile solutions through a single, integrated payment platform.

Technology is available today to build a collaborative digital Figure 15:Access to Public Transit vs. transport infrastructure that is has a low-cost entry point for the Household Income. (Source: Masabi) and would enable the cross-agency collaboration. Payments can seamlessly funneled to different stakeholder accounts in the background, either in the public and/or private sector, through a back-office fare calculation. Having an integrated payment platform allows users to quickly identify the most convenient and/or lowest-available-fare for their journey.

Payment platforms can facilitate an equitable multi-modal transit eco-system, and can affect demand through dynamic and integrated pricing. A digital payment platform can allow users to up their transportation payments and effectively pay for a “monthly” or “weekly” pass, ticket by ticket up to the maximum that period. This payment system could therefore help improve ridership numbers, encouraging use of public transit.

city be

topfor

Figure 16: Transit is changing, it brings value to the user experience to be able to" one-stop shop" a journey from begining to end on a single payment platform.

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Anticipated Value of Solution Public transport is an important factor for job creation and economic growth, not least as a response to a general trend and demand — from younger generations — in Colorado Springs and nationwide. A modern digital payment solution for public transport is part of the equation, both to increase the number of riders of choice, but also for more efficient onboarding, and reducing risks and costs related to cash handling by drivers.

Urgency to Move Forward The COS Department of Public Transport is currently assessing different technologies and solutions platforms on the market. They will funnel both basic and aspirational requirements into the authoring of the RFP to be released by mid-2018.

Framework for Anticipated Solution The direction foreseen for the RFP is to have some core requirements in relation to a Minimal Viable Product for the needs in public transportation, where scalability would be secondary requirements weighed in on top of the absolute requirements. Scalability could, for example, mean the capability to function as a more universal payment platform, for example a COS City Pass.

This RFP set-up would give bidders the opportunity to a) comply with the core requirements for the COS public transport platform, and b) show innovation and capabilities that, everything equal, would add points in the selection process.

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Some of the requirements that have been discussed amongst stakeholders as part of the Pillar Process include: 

No need for tokens; use smartphones.

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Driver does not need to read it.

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Low capital investments for the City.

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Efficient onboarding using Bluetooth capabilities of rider smartphones.

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Connection to Wi-Fi and/or cellular connection is not required to issue a ticket.



Not locking the city in with a vendor.

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Scalability.

Some important back-office requirements to also consider include: 

Collect data to learn patterns and gain multi-modal insights.

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Manage tariffs.

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Access revenue and usage reports.

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Analyze key operational trends.

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Manage customer service requests.

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Monitor validation assets.

Looking forward, cross-agency conversations during the Pillar Process steered towards searching for a payment solution weight on a universal platform that would enable other solutions such as COS CITY pass, that would integrate multi-agency capabilities and benefits including a backend distribution of payments to a diversity of stakeholders.

Next Steps The public transportation payment platform project is led by City Transportation Department. Their RFP Is anticipated to be released by mid-2018.

An overview of next steps as suggested by the Pillar Process includes: 

Continue the proactive stakeholder alignment within COS, including the vetting of the tenders during the role-out.



If there are capabilities beyond the Minimal Viable Product, initiate first steps discussions with stakeholders across City Agencies, but potentially also with the private sector, on how the payment platform can be utilized in a thoughtful way moving forward to accomplish a variety of city goals.

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5. BUILDINGS & SUSTAINABILITY PILLAR SmartCOS Buildings & Sustainability Vision The vision of the City of Colorado Springs for the built environment is the creation of a vibrant and healthy community filled with infrastructure and services that are highly resource efficient. As Colorado Springs continues to grow, competing demands are made on the City’s natural environment, government services, community relationships, educational systems, personal health and quality of life.

This high rate of growth will require comprehensive and collaborative solutions by which the City Government, institutions, businesses, and citizens can coordinate, collaborate, and develop regional solutions to regional challenges.

Sustainability, both environmental and financial, provides an accountability framework to ensure multigenerational betterment of the quality of life for the community of Colorado Springs.

Buildings are responsible to one third of global energy use. Thus, buildings are an important part of the sustainability equation of Colorado Springs. Therefore, to lead by example, the City is investigating technologies such as more efficient heating, air conditioning, and lighting to enable public buildings to use less energy, and that save operational and maintenance expenses.

Smart building management systems are a powerful solution for reigning in energy consumption and unlock savings. As buildings become increasingly complex, with distributed energy generation, exterior shading, switchable glass, these systems are the “neural networks” of smart buildings.

Buildings & Sustainability Pillar Ideas The Buildings & Sustainability Pillar project ideas that have percolated and been prioritized during the Pillar Process as of today are:  

CAB Energy Savings and Smart Building Management Continue to Advance with Water Efficiency.

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CAB Energy Savings and Smart Building Management

IN PROGRESS CAB Energy Savings and Smart Building Management

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As Is Description The City Administration Building (CAB) could become a living laboratory for smart building technologies, a test bed and showcase to learn and scale from in Colorado Springs. A pilot project proposed in this direction is to change indoor traditional luminaires to LED luminaries to significantly save energy. Typically, there is an ROI of two years from such an investment just based on energy savings. On top of that, LED luminaries last longer and demand less work from a building maintenance perspective.

If the LED luminaries integrate a smart controller, a host of smart building possibilities beyond energy savings are unlocked. With, Lunera, a Panasonic smart building partner in the Pillar Process, the luminaries integrate a sophisticated controller bundled with the bulbs. As part of its solution, Lunera offers a cloud based, software platform that really is a Smart Building Management system.

For the pilot project under investigation, a floor or certain sectors of the CAB would be selected for the Lunera luminaries to be installed. The ROI use case would be based on the actual energy savings, which would be accurately measured per individual luminary.

In the pilot, one or a few additional use cases could complement the assessment of this technology and its vendor. Perimeter control is one interesting possibility, deployed and tested by Lunera for other clients. In the case of the CAB building, visitor badges could be equipped with Bluetooth chips. Visitors would have their individual “perimeters” set to a specific floor level. Then, having a Lunera luminary outside each elevator door,

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the Building Management System would automatically detect if a visitor exits on a floor outside the preprogrammed perimeter. An alarm would switch-on at the guards’ desk and action could be taken.

Based on lessons learned, the use case above could be expanded and made more sophisticated. For example, when a sector of the building is sensed to be empty, luminaries could be dimmed significantly, or even turned off, saving additional energy. In emergencies, there would be exact information as to where people are in the building, making evacuations and searches faster and more precise.

There are many more ‘Smart’ capabilities beyond what’s been described above, but the key is to start with a pilot and take one step at the time from there.

Anticipated Value of Solution Today, billions of connected devices, transmitting endless data are all around us. The Internet of Things surrounds us. The Lunera Ambient Compute is a network platform that provides smart devices a robust foundation for IoT connectivity and communications. It also supports an ecosystem of cloud-based applications.

The Lunera Smart LED bulbs are a plug-and-play solution that requires no new wiring.

A leading-edge IoT software solution integrates the control and sensor hardware. This means that lighting fixtures can now become a powerful networking and computing platform that can enable services such as context-based wayfinding, asset tracking, Wi-Fi monitoring, and proximity messaging.

A centralized, computer-based building management system allows commercial or public buildings to monitor, evaluate and control building systems and seize opportunities for efficiency while also improving the experience and productivity of occupants. Retrofitting an automated building management system can reduce building energy consumption by 10 to 20 percent in an average building. A conventional building management system tells building managers what action to take, smart, automated building management systems take the action themselves, like a self-driving car.

In the long-term, the city would like to encourage the private sector to voluntarily adopt energy efficiency practices. The market for smart building management systems is expanding. Since electricity tariffs are low in the Colorado Springs region, energy expenditures will be a small cost driver for businesses. For building management systems to yield a return on up-front costs, it would be important to point out that higher levels of occupant comfort impact tenant satisfaction, and thus retention.

Urgency to Move Forward Lighting innovations are unlocking large savings due to increased energy efficiency, due to a transformation in advanced LED technology. These new bulbs can operate directly off a fixture’s existing ballast. This innovation eliminates the need to modify or replace a fixture to realize the benefit of LED technology, dramatically reducing installation time, disruption and cost.

Framework for Anticipated Solution The CAB Energy Savings and Smart Building Management System is led by the City Innovation & Sustainability team. As part of this City initiative, the Lunera solution is a commercial platform currently under investigation.

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Deployment for this CAB pilot would follow their standard installation, configured to City specifications. The installation includes the Lunera cloud-based Building Management System. In discussions with Lunera, a trial period has been suggested, where Colorado Springs can assess the energy savings and experiment with different use cases. If the City does not want to continue with the Lunera solution after the trial period, discussions are that the installation would be taken back, and the whole pilot and test period would be at no cost for the city. Would the city want to continue the pilot, as is anticipated by both parties, the payment structure would follow the standard Lunera pricing model.

Next Steps Action 1: Narrow down the exact set-up and use cases for the anticipated Lunera pilot. 

Continue the proactive stakeholder alignment within COS, and continue the dialogue with Lunera, towards deployment plan for the CAB pilot, and agree on terms and conditions for both the pilot and the anticipated solution continuation after the pilot.

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Timeline: Next 2 months (April – May 2018)

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: Ryan Trujillo

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Panasonic CityNOW Coordinator: Mike Hess

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Continue to Advance with Water Efficiency

ASPIRATIONAL Continue to Advance with Water Efficiency

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As Is Description The City of Colorado Springs and the City Parks Department have implemented a comprehensive irrigation water management strategy integrating significant irrigation, facilities, buildings water efficiency improvements and landscape modifications.

Since 2010, City Parks has worked to identify important ways to improve irrigation efficiency, save water and sustain valuable landscapes across Colorado Springs. The improvements have provided the community with more efficient use of water services and improves the quality of parks.

Through 2017, nearly 100% of all neighborhood parks have received a variety of irrigation system upgrades resulting in an overall irrigation efficiency improvement of nearly 20% savings.

The improvements have been implemented using a variety of strategies and water-saving equipment: Smart controllers, flow sensors and master valves, rain sensors, sprinkler and nozzle retrofits, new irrigation system installation, and staff training.

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COS Quick Fact Colorado Springs has

17,200 acres of parks and open space and

30,000 acres of vacant land.

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a

Figure 17: (a) Rain sensor installation at Discovery Park; (b) Installation of new irrigation system in Monument Valley Park

In 2013, the City Parks developed a program (ongoing) for reducing the amount of underutilized irrigated Kentucky bluegrass to help maintain a healthier and more sustainable parks system. The strategy includes a process of converting underutilized, high maintenance Kentucky bluegrass to native grass to achieve significant water savings and reduce the overall water footprint of the department. The results from converting nearly 80 acres have been dramatic and proven to be very cost effective while providing an attractive landscape. The return on investment for the projects has averaged 1 to 3 years.

Figure 18: Wasson and Keller Parks. 15 acres of underutilized Kentucky bluegrass grass, converted to native grass (a) Photograph from 2015, (b) today.

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Anticipated Value of Solution Generally accepted irrigation practices involve non-communicating control systems potentially capable of decreasing water use between 5% and 20% if properly operated and maintained. However, the organizations above estimate about 50% of landscape irrigation could be saved through Smart IoT Irrigation, watering when needed.

Urgency to Move Forward Maximizing water conservation and efficiency is crucial to a drought prone city with multiple subsidence causes.

Beyond the financial savings that Colorado Springs could reap by reducing its annual irrigation costs by up to 30% across all departments with landscape, the city has known ground subsidence issues from collapsible soils, mines and karst erosion.

The Colorado Geological Survey indicates overwatering could accelerate karst and soluble rock subsidence.

Subsidence of all types is known to drive hazardous electric situations with multi-million dollar increases in utility capital and operating expenses from accelerated pole, cable and other replacements.

Decreasing irrigation use, along with other water efficiency and conservation efforts, could help defer costly water treatment facility investments in support of the 2017 Integrated Water Resource Plan.

Framework for Anticipated Solution CSU supports landscape irrigation management and offers subsidies to encourage adoption.

Additionally, customers, including the U.S. Army’s Fort Carson, are moving toward “net zero” goals for water.

Among other strategies, Fort Carson reuses gray water generated from showers and laundries to irrigate lawns and trees.

Smart IoT irrigation systems are composed of: 

Sensors (ground moisture, wind speed, humidity, and water pressure),



Smart IoT Controller with IoT Network,



irrigation application, sprayers-nozzles, and valves.

A Smart IoT Irrigation capability could use: existing Smart City IoT Network; Smart Grid IoT Network; or, Low Power WANs (LPWAN) from a carrier (AT&T, Verizon etc. – NB-IoT) or network service firm (Comcast, Senet etc.

- LoRaWAN).

Next Steps Beyond parks, Colorado Springs residents and businesses with Smart IoT Irrigation could potentially save up to 30% of their average annual roughly $800 water bill not including savings on wastewater and sewer fees. An estimated $10-$30 million a year could be freed to be injected into the local economy and stimulate other purchases.

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Micro-grids present an emerging opportunity due to the market availability of decentralized, inexpensive and economical technical solutions. To unlock further savings in Parks Operation and Maintenance, one additional step towards in cleaner and more efficient water irrigation could be to power water pumps using solar energy and put the parks irrigation system on a micro-grid. An engineering consultant could design an irrigation system using photovoltaics and batteries, which could be remotely managed and automated using existing wireless technologies, based on specified criteria, including grass watering requirements, amount of rainfall, and soil dryness.

Duplicating this model in the residential sector, sprinkler systems in homes could also stand-alone using solar energy and a small battery pack.

Action 1: Review the numbers and policies to ensure irrigation efficiency and effectiveness. 

Internal meeting(s) involving key stakeholders on the city and utility sides.



Timeline: Next 2 months (April – May 2018)



Colorado Springs Coordinator: TBD



Colorado Spring Utilities Coordinator: TBD

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6. ENERGY & UTILITIES PILLAR SmartCOS Energy Vision Colorado Springs Utility (CSU) has a reputation for offering very competitive electricity rates and, a high quality of service due to a well-maintained underground distribution network that is highly resilient to weather-related incidents. As such, CSU aims to preserve its reputation in the areas of resilience, reliability, cybersecurity, customer care and affordability, while remaining open to innovation and future-enabling its infrastructure.

The City of Colorado Springs and CSU share a vision to achieve a sustainable energy future through policies and projects that spur innovation and long-term investment by 

promoting responsible economic development,



continuously improving customer service, reliability, and choice, and



improving the quality of life for businesses and residents.

CSU and its special relationship with the City of Colorado Springs is a formidable strength in managing an energy sector in transition.

Boundaries between “what is City” and “what is Utility” have already been challenged in this initial SmartCOS initiative. The Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) program underway by the Colorado Springs Utility directly impacts Smart Streetlights, which is directly related to connected vehicles.

The SmartCOS initiative and the Pillar Process are evidence that stakeholders can come together and have highly productive and inspiring facilitated dialogues. This is the only path forward to achieving progress.

In complex matters without cookie-cutter answers, there is no other way around taking a reflective approach guided by deep-thinking leadership accompanied by good advisors - as is taking place in Colorado Springs today.

An Energy Sector in Transition The Energy sector has largely remained unchanged in the last century, but today is undergoing a monumental transformation. 

The one-way centralized model of energy delivery is giving way to an increasingly renewable and distributed system with bidirectional flow.



Businesses and customers are more informed and interested in where their energy comes from and how and when they use it. Energy solutions provided in a region can determine whether citizens and businesses will locate in those regions.

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

Energy resilience is increasingly important for the critical functions of society with more frequent extreme weather events and natural disasters to be expected.



Grid edge technologies are providing solutions for optimal balancing of the grid to better utilize energy resources and improve performance and reduce costs for customers.



Electrical Vehicles (EV) are anticipated to scale exponentially, increasing the demands on the grid significantly, requiring Utilities to design and plan for the EV charging infrastructure necessary to support this growth.



Utility business models are changing as distributed energy resources and energy efficiency have reduced demand, and new technologies such as smart street lights leverage existing assets to provide additional value to customers.



Superposition of electricity and information architectures create new service-oriented business model.

However difficult the transformation of the energy sector, one thing is clear: this process is improving energy security, creating new employment opportunities, unlocking exciting technological and commercial capabilities, and helping build infrastructure in a more sustainable manner.

The Role of CSU as a Municipal Utility Through the process of implementing a smart grid and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), Colorado Springs Utility (CSU), as a municipal utility, can actively be a knowledge leader in the community in the following areas: 

Communication network design, data management and analytics for decision-making.



Protecting the privacy of personal data.



Running real-time control systems and public safety can be enhanced by utility’s experience in responding to alerts and alarms.

These competencies are helpful in managing street lighting security, parking space location, traffic signals for congestion, and autonomous vehicles. Plus, as electric vehicle (EV) adoption continues to increase, utilities must be involved. EV charging and potentially discharging will change the way the electric grid is operated.

CSU has already shown willingness to be a thought-leader in the community through a variety of different initiatives, including the development of a 2-kilowatt demonstration solar project at the CSU Conservation and Environmental Center. The community can monitor the performance of the center's solar electric system online, and residents can visit the panels on the roof and learn about solar installations through the solar power information display in the Xeriscape garden.

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Drake Coal Plant A foundational goal for any Smart City strategy is to run the city on clean energy sources. The City of Colorado Springs and the Utility are working very hard, arm in arm, to make this challenging goal a reality for the community of Colorado Springs.

The coal-fired 80-year-old Martin Drake Power Plant is nestled in the heart of Colorado Springs, just southwest of downtown. It is currently the City’s current predominant source of electricity generation. When energy is centrally generated and distributed from large power-generating plants like Drake it feeds into high-voltage transmission lines that crisscross the regional into step-down transformers that flow into local power grids, and finally to homes or places of work.

Figure 19: The Martin Drake power plant just southwest of downtown Colorado Springs (2013).

Like in other parts of the United States and the world, in an energy sector in transition, the mega-grid model as it exists today is moribund – it is too large to be secure and unclean because of coal-based generation. This old model of highly centralized generation capacity makes the power system very vulnerable, either to cyberattacks and/or catastrophic failures.

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The emerging model for utility infrastructure is based on distributed generation and an interconnected network of micro-grid clusters. Each cluster can operate independently and coordinate with other clusters to maintain reliability and resilience when needed. As micro-grids proliferate, Colorado Springs will need less of its transmission grid, and less of central station generation.

One of Drake’s three power-generating units already has been shut down. In 2017, the Colorado Springs Utilities Board considered several options for shutting-down Drake a decade earlier than its scheduled 2035 closure.

During the 2017 Board Meetings with the public, Colorado Springs Utilities analysts said a rate increase of around 4 percent is needed to pay for decommissioning Drake and replacing it with new generating infrastructure. The total cost was said to be at least $60 million and up to three times higher, depending on future energy costs. Per public surveys, 61 percent opposed a rate increase to close Drake, while 39 percent were willing to pay no more than a 2 percent increase.

Therefore, Council members considered the possibilities and costs related to shutting one of the two remaining generators by 2023, and decided against making a firm commitment to keep options open. City council members did, however, vote to accelerate work to install transmission lines needed for the utility’s preferred “distributed power” scenario. This option also included as many as eight smaller plants fueled by natural gas, and possibly acquiring energy from other sources apart from the utility.

Drake is one of the nation’s last coal-fired power plants in the middle of a city. The era of fossil fuels is over, and the only question now is when will the new era be fully upon us. Economics makes its arrival inevitable: clean energy will be less expensive. Canada, Finland and four other countries have already banned coal, and more are preparing to. We are squarely in the middle of the greatest energy transition in history.

Added Value: Increased Resilience Colorado Springs is currently planning how to implement its transition from coal. Energy security and the resiliency of power supply during emergencies, such as snow-storms, floods, and fires, are a major concern for the City of Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs Utility and the community in general. Some community stakeholders, such as the Military, are concerned about shutting down Drake Coal Plant due to their organizational stringent resiliency and security needs. Federal mandates require military bases to ensure the ability to secure energy for periods of two to three months.

Many stakeholders worry that battery technologies available today can only store energy for two to three days, (depending on intensity of use) and that solar panels could be compromised during a variety of events.

Nevertheless, there are solutions currently available to solve this challenge using clean technologies and strategic market models. Just like generators selling surplus energy supply into a market, interlocking microgrids can create a market to ensure reliability and robustness of service. In fact, the very distributed nature of the generation centers in micro-grids helps distribute the risk, ensuring a microgrids’ resilience, reliability and security.

Further, diversifying renewable sources to include not only solar, but also wind, mini-hydro and biomass increase resilience and reliability. When combined with a storage device, battery or super capacitors and

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backup a diesel generator makes microgrids are highly reliable and economically viable. Technology is advancing rapidly, and high technology products like nano solar cells, nano super capacitors, nano batteries and fuel cells will greatly increase storage capacity in the short-term.

Added Value: Reusing the Railroad Tracks While most of the coal transported through Colorado Springs is reportedly on its way to Pueblo, closing Drake will also be one more step towards the possibility to reuse the railroad tracks, which are strategically positioned in the Downtown area of the city. Leading by example could open the discussion regionally towards the goal of using the railroad tracks for regional mobility of people instead of for the coal transport. With the implementation of disruptive technological solutions, such as the Hyperloop or Arrivo, just around the corner, regional collaboration of this kind could unlock exciting possibilities for economic development not only for Colorado Springs, but also for the Pikes Peak Region in general.

The Hyperloop and Arrivo are new concepts of urban transportation for long distances and a cutting-edge technological background which it has been developing thoroughly over the past 10 years, that uses tubes, vacuum and alternative energy. Hyperloop started as an idea and developed with an active campaign of crowdstorming which led to question every side of the transportation system as it is known today: ticketing, energy, sponsoring and funding.

As of November 2017, the technological system supporting this High Speed Super Urban Network is being tested by Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) with the goal of commuting from Denver to Boulder within 8 minutes. Liberating the coal load from the rail infrastructure, could unlock similar economic development opportunities for Colorado Springs. Therefore, the economic value of re-using the rail infrastructure needs to be considered when making decisions about the future of the coal plant.

Figure 20: (left) An Arrivo freeway mock-up. (right) Potential Arrivo routes in metro Denver 7

7 Colorado Department of Transportation/Arrivo.

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Urgency to Move Forward Residents of Colorado Springs raised concerns about sulfur dioxide (SO2) and other pollution, pressing state health officials to reject a proposal to declare Drake “in attainment” of federal air quality standards for SO2.

This toxic gas mixes with other pollutants and hangs over the city against mountains, with the potential to cause asthma, heart disease and other lung problems after even brief exposure.

In 2017, Colorado Springs Utilities plant operators deployed “scrubbers” to clean emissions, and, by the end of the year, federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) overseers stated that monthly SO2 emissions decreased to 31 tons a month, significantly down from 330 tons a month in 2015.

Beyond health and environmental concerns, there are important economic and strategic benefits to finding cleaner generation alternatives to Drake.

Colorado Springs is the second largest City in Colorado, with a population approaching 500,000. The city is expected to grow by 58.8% by 20508. Grid extension from traditional coal-fired plants will be uneconomical, even for modest population clusters, when compared to photovoltaics and battery solutions.

Grid economics deteriorate rapidly in low-density municipalities, and grid extensions become increasingly expensive away from population centers as there are less customers with which to share the costs.

In a city as extensive in area as Colorado Springs, micro-grids are an excellent grid development tool, as microgrids can be implemented as easily in high-density areas as in low-density areas.

Further, since micro-grids involve local generation and consumption, they eliminate the need for costly transmission infrastructure and consequent losses in the electricity’s transit. As micro-grids proliferate over time, less of the transmission grid will be needed, as well as less of the central station generation.

At 9.3 miles from the grid, coal power is no longer competitive with solar PV, if one includes the infrastructure, maintenance, and distribution costs 9.

Framework for Anticipated Solution To successfully close Drake coal plant, the City of Colorado Springs and Colorado Springs Utility will need to plan how to (1) avert the potential long-term job and tax revenue loss through new economic development and employment retraining opportunities, and (2) remediate legacy environmental contamination.

Preparing a site for reuse often is a complex, multi-year process that includes: 

decommissioning the existing power plant,



cleaning up contamination (e.g., in materials, soil and ground water), and



creating and implementing a redevelopment plan.

8 Colorado Division of Local Affairs, State Demography Office, 2016.

9 Bhave, Mahesh P., The Microgrid Revolution: Business Strategies for Next Generation Electricity, 2015.

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Local leadership that is committed to public involvement and the establishment of a balanced and inclusive stakeholder group can guide the process by considering the many factors and unique conditions of the coal plant site, along with the community’s redevelopment goals.

Site reuse options inform cleanup decisions and should be developed early in the process to determine the appropriate level of work needed for redevelopment. Understanding the range of reuse options will help in the development of realistic schedules and cost estimates.

Such a vision is needed to implement continuous communication on plans moving forward. In the SmartCOS Ideation Summit citizens expressed a wide range of ideas for the reuse of the Drake site. Many ideas included refurbishing parts of the building. Many cities around the world have successfully faced this urban challenge and have embraced this urban renewal project to reinvent the surrounding neighborhood. In the case of neighborhood surrounding Drake, this is already happening.

Figure 21: La Usina del Arte is a converted coal power plant converted into a concert hall and cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photos before and after.

Figure 22: The Power Station of Art is a converted coal plant in Shanghai, China. It is now a statement building that functions as a Modern Art Museum. Due to its size, it can fit enormous art installations from renown artists all over the word.

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Time and costs associated with permits, approvals (of permits, plans, funding) and public involvement should be factored into redevelopment plans. To prepare, the City and Utility will need to review the financing options and incentives available.

Figure 23: Coal Plant Decommissioning Plant Decommissioning, Remediation and Redevelopment. 10

Energy Pillar Project Ideas This chapter highlights the SmartCOS energy technologies and strategies. Foundational to the SmartCOS Energy strategy is supplanting energy production from fossil fuels and coal asrenewable energy costs continue to fall on a year-to-year basis.

The Energy Pillar project ideas that have percolated and been prioritized during the Pillar Process as of today are: 

Smart Street (Light) Framework, COS



Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Project



Microgrids for the City and the Airport

10 Source: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

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

Electrical Vehicle (EV) Strategy



Coordinated Fiber Layout Infrastructure Strategy

 Substitute Generation Capacity with Renewables.

Some ideas are foundational to a Smart City strategy, such as the decommissioning of Drake, involving many aspects outside the actual offsetting of megawatts with clean generation.

Other ideas are market-driven, such as the electric vehicle (EV) strategy. The electrification of transportation is a key trend that requires smart planning of infrastructure for charging, as well as the balancing of load and design of rate structures to incentivize charging during off-peak periods.

From a resilience perspective, electrical vehicles are moving sources of energy. This has been utilized in for example Japan in large scale for real emergency situations. An electrical vehicles strategy crosses the boundaries between City, Utility and the private sector. The State of Colorado, with the Volkswagen settlement as its funding base, will be providing strong incentives for electrical vehicle programs.

A Smart Energy approach requires the implementation of smart grid technologies that manage energy consumption and optimize coordination between decentralized power generation and the increased utilization of renewables. Energy and sustainability analysis and planning—from individual buildings to entire districts (e.g., the Colorado Springs Southwest Downtown Revitalization District)—will be critical to optimizing investments and outcomes, and are fundamental supporting elements of a high-level smart city strategy.

Smart Street (Light) Framework, COS

IN PROGRESS Smart Street (Light) Framework, COS

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CONTRIBUTION

ARTICULATION

ASSESSMENT

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Overview of Smart LED Street Light Infrastructure with IoT Maintaining and operating a traditional street has significant capital and labor costs. As the cost of LED luminaries have fallen and the technology has matured (both reliability and lumens per watt), the risk of converting from legacy alternatives to street light LEDs has never been lower and the potential gains have never been greater.

By replacing existing street lights with LED-based fixtures, utilities and other street light operators can cut energy and operations costs by 50% to 75%. Networking LEDs beyond a basic “bulb swap” delivers an even faster return on investment, through features such as remote management and faster outage response.

Smart streets are not one-time “set it and forget it” installations. Instead they rely on ongoing data collection and business intelligence to identify patterns within city networks, extract valuable and actionable insights from data, and convert those insights into control decisions that enhance services.

Smart street lights provide benefits far beyond cost savings and this infrastructure enables other smart solutions that empower city and utility staff to be faster, smarter, and more confident in their decision making.

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How Smart Street Lighting Works The network—typically mesh—consists of intelligent nodes used to control the fixtures. These nodes monitor fixture performance and operating conditions, and execute commands based on inputs such as schedules and ambient light levels. Information collected about fixture performance is wirelessly transmitted to a gateway (communicates up to 2,000 nodes) and passed on to a pre-configured server, where it is graphically displayed at a customer workstation. The customer can monitor and remotely control assets in real time, as well as make faster decisions based on the information provided by this network.

Image Source: MW Consulting.

Smart Street Lights Enable Smarter Streets and Cities Smart street lights can form the “backbone” of additional smart city infrastructure, enabling a range of datadriven services and applications to enhance quality of life and city services.

Street lights are valuable real estate upon which to physically build out a location-based real-time city monitoring and response network, due to: 

Their geographic reach across the city.



Their raised, out-of-the-way location for hosting installed technologies.



Their available power and communications infrastructure already running to the poles.

Yet, current smart city deployments frequently lack the scale necessary to collect sufficient data to prove the broader opportunity; as such, larger deployments of 500+ lights are a critical step toward realizing the full smart streets market and services potential.

Additionally, smart street vendors often operate on proprietary systems that fail to access control layers.

Therefore, networked solutions deployed at larger scales, and integrated through a single backend software layer, can unlock multiple economic, safety, and environmental benefits.

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Figure 24: Smart Streetlights enable a variety of Smart City Services through a Communications Network.

Image Source: MW Consulting.

Ownership of Streetlights Legacy street light ownership model still present in some jurisdictions, departmental siloes, the complexity of multi-application projects, and need to raise upfront capital are all challenges for the smart street lighting market.

the

Nevertheless, smart streetlights are an important network asset and key to a successful Smart City strategy. Like many cities pursing a Smart City Strategy, Colorado Springs must decide who owns and who maintains and operates the smart street light infrastructure to leverage a high-value asset that is foundational in realizing the SmartCOS Vision.

thus

One forward-leaning approach to resolving ownership issues is through the creation of a Streetlight Enterprise that runs on its own independent “micro-grid.� This approach is discussed the following case study.

Case Study: Advanced Solar LED Streetlighting Solution The City of Harahan, Louisiana decided to provide streetlighting through a local start-up called ClearWorld LLC. The goal to was to provide city-wide outdoor lighting through solar energy and provide a solution that was virtually maintenance-free.

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This self-contained solar-powered lighting solution is off-grid and be used in remote installations and is unaffected by power outages. The solution is ideal for roadways, sidewalks, neighborhoods, parking lots, university campuses, government institutions, and military installations.

can

ClearWorld turned to a manufacturer called MiaSolé to provide a solar panel that would allow them to generate sufficient power, easily retrofit onto existing light poles, work well on new poles, perform well in the environment as well as be aesthetically pleasing.

and

The MiaSolé FLEX modules are wrapped around the light pole, eliminating the solar rectangle “wing” design of typical solar street light panels. The self-contained modules reduce the chance of vandalism and theft because the flexible panels are shatter-resistant and are located 12 feet above street level.

Furthermore, the streetlights are hurricane and flood resistant.

The ability of the FLEX panels to conform to the light pole increases resistance to wind. While a traditional solar light with a rectangular panel could withstand 70 to 90 mph winds, a light powered by a FLEX panel can withstand 150+ mph. Because the power source is located 12 feet up, flood protection is provided.

Furthermore, the curved design of the FLEX panel performs better in high temperatures, allows for better solar absorption throughout the day through a curved axis, and resists panel surface buildup of dirt, grass, bird droppings, etc.

The FLEX panels are the most efficient thin-film lightweight flexible panels on the market today—with an efficiency rating of 15.5%. Therefore, the panel is sufficient to charge a backup battery that can power an LED streetlight for up to eight days, meaning even in times of inclement weather the light will be operational.

The ClearWorld solution also provides a clear white light for improved security while remaining compliant with International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) regulations for reducing sky-glow and light pollution.

The solution is even less expensive to install and operate than a traditional incandescent street light, with virtually no maintenance costs, no electrical costs, and greater lamp-life hours. 11

Anticipated Value of Proposed Solution There are important immediate values, as well as long term potential values from services that can be implemented on top of the initial infrastructure.

The specific benefits of smart street lighting fall into three categories: energy savings, operational savings, and positive community impact.

11 http://miasole.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/FLEX_ClearWorldCaseStudy.pdf

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Energy Savings 

Low wattage: LEDs provide significant energy savings vs. legacy bulbs.



Dimming: Operators can schedule fixtures to dim on a specific schedule or anytime they prefer; this unlocks even greater energy savings and lengthens LED life.



Reduced burn time: With on/off scheduling capabilities, operators can easily modify street light operations to coincide with changing sunrise/sunset times, reducing fixture burn time.

Operational Savings 

Long life: LED fixtures lasts 3–4 times longer than legacy lamps, so require replacements less often, which reduces hardware and installation costs. In addition, dimming the fixture further increases the life of the LED.



Remote monitoring and management: The ability to have real-time knowledge and control of lighting assets reduces the need to run lamps for long periods, install photocells, etc.



Automatic outage detection: There is no longer a need for inspectors and the number of calls (and costs) to a potential call center on lighting problems is greatly reduced. The system will reduce the number of false alarms and pinpoint nonworking fixtures. This allows for the quick dispatch of crews to specific locations, with work orders created from the system that include a Google Maps image for accuracy.

Positive Community Impact 

Public safety: Reduced crime from improved lighting throughout neighborhoods, coupled with the ability for police and other public safety officials to brighten or darken areas as needed.



Traffic safety: Safer roadways due to increased visibility of potential hazards.



Environmental quality: Measurable positive environmental impact from reduced power consumption, reduced emissions, reduced light pollution, etc.



Liability: Decreased liability due to public safety incident mitigation.



Government reputation: Improved community view of city services because of proactive repairs.

By transforming single-use street lights into a multifunction ‘smartphone’ for cities, they create opportunities to tackle many other near and present concerns for city staff, including 

Traffic and Parking Management

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

Public Safety



Environmental Sensing



Wi-Fi Communications Infrastructure.

How to unlock each of these capabilities is explored within the respective solution domains of other project ideas of this report.

Major Challenges Moving Forward The AMI program implementation strategy will directly impact the Smart Streetlight Strategy, in two manners (a) Level of streetlight and AMI coordination will impact City savings, and (b) Streetlight implementation strategy can affect AMI deployment cost, meter-to-cash revenues / costs, and citizen satisfaction.

Therefore, there are five major challenges that need to be addressed by the City of Colorado Springs in conjunction with Colorado Springs Utility to move forward with this solution domain: 1) Map out conflict of interest on benefit realization between City and Utilities. To accomplish this task, the City will need to review the Utility AMI program vision, strategy and business case before the AMIrelated RFPs are issued. Potential Conflicts of Interest Key Drivers include: o

City and Utility are currently not aligned as needed to support efficient and effective procurement.

o

City savings are based on a decrease of Utility revenues that could result in misaligned COS-CSU interests.

o

City may need streetlight ownership for affordable and independent IoT Infrastructure implementation and updating.

2) Define future economical and organizational models between City and Utilities, including a roadmap to get there.

3) Create a Smart Led Street Light Infrastructure with IoT architecture, including issues of separation or sharing of architectural components. This point includes harmonizing Advanced Metering Infrastructure (an ongoing full-scale project) with the infrastructure for the Connected Vehicle Platform (potential pilot project). To accomplish this, the City of Colorado Springs will need to review the CSU communication network architecture and performance concepts and make decisions related to services to be deployed and level of network integration: o

Simple network challenge: meter reading, basic DA, basic streetlight management

o

Intermediate network challenge: DER, DR

o

Significant network challenge: advanced DA, smart streetlights, smart transportation, smart buildings etc.

4) Develop an installation plan of the services required with architecture mapped onto specific locations within Colorado Springs. Plan should anticipate types of services required at each location and identify

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the implications of the requirements for future infrastructure needs. To accomplish this Colorado Springs will need to review and approve the AMI project RFP components for network, Smart Street Lights, Smart Water-Irrigation etc. to: o

Ensure Street Light Controller RFP includes electricity metering provision (“pay for what you use”)

o

Ensure Smart Water explores pressure monitoring, leak management, and irrigation.

5) Create an implementation roadmap for the City’s and Utility’s IoT system architecture based on the above four points.

Urgency to Move Forward There are currently 315 million street lights globally, growing to an estimated 359 million by 2026 12. As of 2012, the U.S. alone had an estimated 26 million street lights, consuming the electricity equivalent of 1.9 million households annually, generating emissions equivalent to 2.6 million cars, and consuming more than $2 billion in energy alone.13 Smart LED Street Light Infrastructure with IoT is the very basis for any Smart City strategy to scale. While the challenges are significant, the value of this project cannot be understated. Hence, urgency is the highest to make significant large-scale progress on this project idea.

Next Steps Smart Street Light infrastructure is a complex undertaking without cookie-cutter answers. There is no shortcut to thoughtful decision-making. Implementing this project successfully requires a well-coordinated effort through working groups capable of dedicating time to deep-thinking in collaboration with high-quality advisors.

The approach suggested in this Smart City implementation plan is for the City of Colorado Springs and the Colorado Springs Utilities to make funds available for a program study containing five work packages for professional services mapping the five challenges above, to be initiated as soon as possible, not least to be able to inform the ongoing Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project, as well as to inform the potential Connected Vehicle Platform pilot project.

Finally, it is important to keep in mind smart street lights area a data harvesting tool that the city can use to make smart and informed decisions in a wide scope of solution domains. Data is frequently locked behind proprietary systems from hardware manufacturers. Therefore, current smart streets solutions are producing a massive new set of data that may be difficult for decision makers to process. 

Decision makers will require unified data harmonization, data visualization, and analysis to unlock the value of the increasing volume of data sensors produce.

12 Northeast Group.

13 https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2012/08/02/podiumstreetlight/9qVaAubIxU0j27bcavREaK/story.html

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Single-pane, single-sign-on data portals are essential to integrate and harmonize proprietary data into a single monitoring and control screen, such as the Panasonic CityWIDE data portal, to help city officials across multiple divisions.

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More data is needed in operational environments to prove the business intelligence value of smart streets solutions in densely populated areas.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Project

IN PROGRESS Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Project

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As Is Description The Pillar Process facilitated discussions about Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) in relation to smart streetlights for Colorado Springs. This AMI initiative is an ongoing project driven and owned by Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU). In this section, we suggest some best practices based on these conversations, and we suggest a strategic approach for programmatic goal-oriented planning within the frame of SmartCOS. The electrical grid is a complex machine composed of transmission lines, substations, and distribution networks. Originally designed to ferry electricity from centralized suppliers, such as coal plants, large hydro plants or nuclear plants, to broad geographies of customers, it was fundamentally a one-way system. The original grid touted reliability, reach and capacity.

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The nationally interconnected grid is what provides national resilience in the event of a large-scale failure in generation or transmission line. Long-term, it may eventually become obsolete if distributed energy microgrids are proved to be reliable, robust, resilient and secure. Clean, renewable energy sources will have a different set of requirements.

While concentrated energy sources were predictable and manageable, allowing utilities to align supply with demand, renewable sources tend to be much more variable and dispersed.

Accommodating their fluctuations through Automated Distribution Management and enabling the success of renewables necessitates a more nimble, adaptive grid.

The current investments in smartening the grid that Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) is undertaking, will allow the utility will bolster its ability to engage in two-way communications with suppliers and consumers to predict, adjust and sync power supply and demand within their operation control center.

These smart grid investments have three essential components: 1) High-voltage power lines. When equipped with sensors, this substructure will be better monitored, producing near real-time reports on conditions and multidirectional flow. Investments in the Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) will allow CSU to better coordinate, control and monitor the regional transmission network.

2) Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). AMI is an integrated system of smart meters, communications networks, and data management systems that enable two-way communication of information, such as electricity consumption and pricing, in near real-time between utilities and customers. Within the scope of the AMI project, CSU plans to upgrade not just its electricity meters, but also its gas and water and waste-water meters, which will include the replacement of approximately 800,000 meters, including just over 200,000 electric meters.

3) Well-connected appliances, smart thermostats, home batteries, Home Energy Management (HEM) applications. These IoTs can participate in demand-response programs to reduce consumption.

Customer systems include in-home displays, home area networks, energy management systems, and other customer-side-of-the-meter equipment that enable smart grid functions in residential, commercial, and industrial facilities.

Together, smart grid components will make it possible for Colorado Springs Utility to smooth out peaks in demand and absorb variable, distributed supply from renewables.

CSU is taking an integrated and holistic approach to Smart Grids. Through the Advanced Metering Infrastructure Deployment project, Colorado Springs Utilities has strategically decided to focus on network upgrades instead of concentrating only on the metering infrastructure. Furthermore, as part of the Smart Grid Initiative, CSU is actively hiring employees and piloting related projects to plan for future.

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Anticipated Value of Solution Through the smart grid, internet connectivity, intelligent software, and responsive technologies assist and even automate the management of electricity flow, coordinating between the grid’s many facets in real time. These features allow a smart grid to reduce overall electricity consumption due to system energy efficiency gains.

Smart grids can help facilitate the shift away from fossil fuels such as coal, while ensuring grid reliability and resilience to the introduction of additional solar capacity and wind turbines.

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Colorado Springs Utility has also identified several important organizational benefits because of implementing the AMI program: 

Redistribution of 75 field positions, supporting employee safety objectives.

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Reduction in truck rolls which translated to significant savings.

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Revenue protection due to faster detection of theft and meter failures.

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Better data sharing with customers (daily usage and consumption history).

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Detection and notification of customer water leaks.

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Faster customer billing resolution.

By adding and integrating a variety of sensors to the AMI system, CSU will be able to achieve a more real-time and exact picture of its energy and water systems through new generation of data analytics applications. These systems will notify utility staff regarding system anomalies, outages, and leaks, allowing them to more effectively and cost efficiently respond.

Investments in the smart grid will also help the Colorado Springs community as whole implement its SmartCOS vision. The smart grid is foundational for many Smart City projects included in this report. For instance, the smart grid will help manage additional energy demand from plug-in electric vehicles as they build critical mass, as well as support other applications including smart lights, transportation, parking, and better internet access.

Studies show that investing in smart grids will be well worth it, thanks to air pollution mitigation, financial savings, and improved grid performance. In the United States, an investment of $340 billion to $480 billion in upgrading to an intelligent grid system is expected to yield a net benefit of $1.3 trillion to $2 trillion over the next 20 years.14 Figure 25: Smart meters are changing the way we consume electricity. 15

14 Hawken, Paul. Drawdown, Penguin Books, 2017.

15 Populus.co.uk

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Urgency to Move Forward Smart meters, as part of an Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI), will allow CSU to participate as a mature market adopter and prepare CSU for the major utility trends. Having an integrated AMI system, both in network and applications, will allow CSU to increase the data collected, analyzed and leveraged for the benefit of customers and utility operations. It will transform how CSU does business by providing utility operators more timely and actionable information, improving customer service and communications.

Framework for Anticipated Solution CSU installed over 550,000 Automated Meter Readers (AMR) meters and modules between 2005 to 2010. We currently have about 575K. The total project cost was about $78 million, which was $2 million under budget and a year ahead of schedule. This system provides CSU daily reads and has averaged over 99% reliability. The current AMR system can handle a limited number of Smart Meters but to fully deploy Smart Meters and leverage all their functionality CSU will need the advanced Head End and Communications Network of an AMI system.

Figure 26: Simplified picture of CSU current AMR system. (Source: CSU)

20,000+ 2-Way Meters

In 2010, CSU began deploying a limited number of Smart Meters and currently has over 20,000 in the system for Residential Net Metering accounts. Features such as Remote Disconnect are used for high collections areas, violence code accounts and high turnover areas.

CSU is also using Smart meters on a pilot program called Volt Var that has the potential to save millions by optimally managing voltage levels and reactive power to achieve more efficient gird operation by reducing system losses, peak demand and/or energy consumption.

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All large industrial and commercial customers require Smart meters to support their more complex rate options. The current system is generally in line with where the industry even though it is nearing 12 years on some of the oldest components.

In 2017, the Board of Colorado Springs Utilities has approved a plan to implement the AMI program over the next six years (2018-2023), with a total budget of $139 million. CSU is currently gathering the technical requirements and AMI specifications with the support of a consultant to open bids for the implementation of the project in April 2018.

Looking Forward From a regulatory perspective, utilities have traditionally been encouraged to treat customers the same, differentiating only between residential, commercial and industrial customers, and then sometimes segmenting by a few consumption levels.

Consumers today want choice. They respond to personalization. They value ease and convenience. They expect a high-quality experience from a provider who knows and understands them and can act as a concierge to their life (i.e. “If you bought this, you may like this.”).

Since energy customers now have a wide variety of energy choices, utilities must deploy a customer-centric strategy and use data to understand and retain their customers. Taking a behavioral-based approach to energy services will mean customizing a wide variety of rates and energy product and helping customers meet their goals as easily and make the buying experience delightful to use.

Looking forward, the increasing complexity and therefore congestion of the network should not an energy customer’s problem. Behavioral energy efficiency, rolling out demand response or time of use pricing effectively passes these grid problems on to the customer. While driving down energy consumption is a worthy goal, studies have shown that most consumers do not want to actively manage their energy nor have a high level of interest in accessing data at a granular level.

Strategically leveraging the AMI program in this way requires three components: 

Data: The core set of data exists inside the utility (often in silos) and includes historical consumption information and participation in various programs. This information can be augmented through readily available channels to include income levels, housing types, educational levels, and past purchasing history.

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Tools: Big data analytic tools often do not exist within the utility, and this leads to a debate regarding buying an off-the-shelf solution or building a custom tool. Strategically, this debate is like debating whether to create your own word-processing software when all you really want to do is write a book.

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Skills: Utilities need to invest in building data-analytics skills in-house, so that data can be turned into business useful information that can optimize the utility network and plan new products and services.

The two-way communications tools available through AMI will allow utilities to engage with consumers on a personal level while driving value for the utility. The value of AMI will not only be in the ability of the utility to better manage the network, but also in helping the consumer seamlessly manage their energy for them – per their preferences, their objectives, and their needs. Over time, the energy provider becomes a “trusted

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advisor” to their customers, who would be paying for a pre-determined outcome, whether that is the most comfort, the cheapest energy, the greenest energy or the most reliable energy.

Micro-Grids for the City and the Airport

IN PROGRESS Creating a Relationship-Based Camera Pool

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As Is Description Moving towards a micro-grid model will help Colorado Springs breakthrough into distributed energy storage model. Distributed generation is the ability to retain small or large amounts of energy produced where people live or work. No longer passive consumers, customers can become producers of and buy or sell power to the grid. This choice means they can now avoid peak demand charges and, thus enable a more resilient grid, preventing demand spikes that cause brown-outs or grid failure.

The wind and the sun have their own timetables, making renewable energy variable. This poses a critical challenge for utilities who need to closely balance supply and demand in near-real time. The capacity to turn-on backup power-generating plants through battery storage at a moment’s notice unlocks the potential of renewables. However, until now, prices for batteries have been prohibitively expensive. As shown in the following figure, this is changing. There are two basic sources of storage: stand-alone batteries and electric vehicles.

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Battery prices are falling fast. In 2009, batteries costs $1,200 kilowatt-hour. Today, in 2018, batteries cost less than $200 kilowatt hour. Another way of thinking about this is that by 2016, for $1,200 per kilowatt hour could you could already a 24-kilowatt-hour energy storage system and get a car thrown in for free – the all-electric Nissan LEAF.

Figure 27: Battery Costs Worldwide keep falling as the energy density increases substantially

per per

(US Department of Energy).

buy

Microgrids are technologically sophisticated systems, involving monitoring and control, supply optimization among several generation sources, and demand-side management.

These characteristics allow them to be more resilient and secure, since they can operate in island-mode for a designed time-period.

Micro-grids can be stand-alone when necessary – tied to other micro-grids and/or the mega-grid when necessary, and therefore fully competitive with the traditional mega-grid – complementary to it.

are and

Anticipated Value of Solution A microgrid not only provides backup for the grid in case of emergencies, but can also be used to cut costs or connect to local resource that is too small or unreliable for traditional use. A microgrid allows communities to be more energy independent and, in some cases, more environmentally friendly. 

Increasing reliability and resilience of power supply

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Saving money

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Making the grid more resilient

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Figure 28: Battery Storage and Solar Canopy Power Panasonic CityNOW headquarters.

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a grid

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Supporting efforts to close Drake Coal Plant

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Help modernize utility infrastructure.

Microgrids are most cost effective when powered by locally available renewable energy resources. Since microgrids involve local generation and local consumption, they eliminate the need for costly transmission infrastructure and consequent losses in the electricity’s transit.

the

Furthermore, collaboration amongst micro-grids would reduce capital costs, enable resource sharing, and enhance reliability. Information flows would allow the dynamic control of generation sources and demand management to optimize operating costs. As a rule of thumb, while the price/unit of grid electricity will continue to rise at approximately 5 percent per year, the price of a microgrid system will continue to fall at 5 percent per year. 16 Figure 29: Advantages to Micro-Grid Solution. 17

Urgency to Move Forward The electricity grid in the United States is not only aging, it is facing an increasing number of threats, ranging from severe weather events to solar flares to cyber terrorism. It's something many utilities around the US, as well as important community stakeholders such as the US military, are taking seriously, helping lead the way in the development of smaller and more secure microgrids.

16 Bhave, Mahesh P., The Microgrid Revolution: Business Strategies for Next-Generation Electricity, 2016.

17 Reilley Associates.

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The Colorado Springs faces risks including forest fires, flash flooding, high wind advisories and snow storms. The City is very interested in increasing the resilience of (some) fire stations and other critical city services operations and infrastructure through combined micro-grid solutions and battery storage solutions.

The City of Colorado Springs Airport leadership has also expressed interest in a combined solar plus storage micro-grid. Like much of the City infrastructure, existing diesel backup generators are over 20 years old and would likely need to be replaced shortly. These generators would provide about 8 hours of fuel onsite in the event of an outage. A solar plus storage micro-grid would allow the airport to run for at least two to three days in the event of an outage, depending on the way it was designed and intensity of use.

In the case of an airport batteries would generally be distributed near each of the loads rather than a central battery to improve energy efficiency. The airport is considering a shared cost model for airport power supply through a public-private partnership (PPA) agreement, and would likely look for a third-party developer to own and operate the micro-grid. This business model would allow the developer to take advantage of the tax benefits, and the City’s Airport Enterprise would receive a steady stream of income from the developer leasing the land.

As a second phase, the airport could also consider a extending or adding a second microgrid to service the business park on airport land to attract businesses with mission-critical operations, allowing the airport to charge more rent.

Framework for Anticipated Solution When it comes to micro-grids there are a variety of applications that have different resiliency and security requirements. Stringent resiliency and security specifications raise costs. If these critical uses can be isolated, then economic and strategic resources can be targeted towards them without increasing costs across the board on applications where the extra security may not be necessary.

Micro-grid applications include: 

Remote grids, necessary due to geographical features.

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Military and security grids, necessary to maintain data and security during a catastrophe.

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Commercial or industrial grids, catering to the needs of a a specific industrial community.

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Community grids that optimize and utilize the specific regional renewable resources to give clean and cost effective power supply.

“Fractionating for value” in Colorado Springs could entail: (1) Breaking-up the current utility service territory into smaller geographical units as needed, serviced by micro-grids, for example to service a specific client or a specific location, i.e. Airport, Military Base, Hospital, or logistics operator like FedEx. One logical way to fractionate by geography would be to locate the hub of the new service unit at a substation. The small service territories – constituted as micro-grids – would then interact with each other for increased resilience while offering superior economic and operational gains.

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(2) Re-organizing the electricity grid by splitting it by product-markets, for example creating a virtual micro-grid for Streetlights through a City Enterprise, or putting in place a virtual micro-grid for Emergency Services to ensure high resilience, or offering an Electric Vehicle (EV) charging micro-grid to ensure a clean energy is used for charging. To work towards the implementation of a product-driven micro-grid strategy, CSU could first focus on intensive services, that demand high amounts of load and/or have specific requirements.

Gigantic and costly generation and large service territories are no longer needed for economically viable electricity services. Scale would be associated less with gigantic generation, and more with market reach – an extensive strategy. Market reach would be no longer defined by regulations, but rather by strategic intent – as markets can be defined by specialization, such as a street-light microgrid enterprise or a police department micro-grid.

Figure 30: Micro-grid at Panasonic CityNOW headquarters in Peña Station, Denver.

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Community Solar, Community Energy Storage and Community Microgrids The sharing economy is one of the most feverishly growing aspects of the Smart City. Whether ride-sharing, tool-sharing or home-sharing, sharing optimizes investments and opens new value streams and new benefits to participants never before envisioned. Energy markets are no exception and are experiencing similar communityoriented revolutions. The concepts of community solar, community energy storage and community micro-grids are relatively new, and posed for rapid growth: Community Solar: Solar power installation that accepts capital from and provides output credit and tax benefits to individuals and other investors. In some systems, individuals buy solar panels which are installed into the installation after their purchase. This system allows renters or building owners who do not have the right conditions to install solar on their home or property to participate in clean energy investments.

Community Energy Storage: This term has currently several competing definitions. The first is like community solar, where a community shares the ownership of a farm of batteries. This is not as beneficial or practical as another definition: Electric utility owned storage that is distributed, being located at the periphery of the utility distribution system, near residential or business end-users, rather than using one or a few large storage units for important energy efficiency gains and increased resilience.

Community Micro-grid: A group of interconnected loads and Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) with clearly defined electrical boundaries that acts as a single controllable entity with respect to the grid. They can act as vehicle for neighborhoods to meet their energy needs locally. Increasingly, community microgrids are being eyed as an option even in areas where a larger grid already exists, mainly to increase local energy independence, secure resilience and ensure clean energy supply.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) Microgrids: This form of microgrid is based on energy trading using blockchain technology to allow individual consumers to trade surplus energy from their solar panels and batteries directly with each other, rather than through a retailer. P2P enables consumers and purchasers to negotiate directly with each other and determine electricity value at a specific time.

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Navigant Research forecasts that the total installed capacity of community solar programs across the country will reach 1.5 GW by 2020, then grow fourfold from 2020 to 2025. Meanwhile, GTM Research pegs the U.S. microgrid market at just over $550 million and expects it to exceed $1.3 billion in four years.

Figure 31: Smart City Community Micro-grid in Shioashiya, Japan, connects 117 homes.

Next Steps The first phase of a city resilience micro-grid strategy generally aims identify the key facilities where the power must stay on. These facilities generally include fire stations, hospitals, sewage treatment plants and prisons.

Once these specific locations are identified, a mechanism can be identified to ensure the level of resilience required and economically feasible.

The second phase of a city resilience strategy focuses on “resilience centers.” These are locations that would be able to provide critical services to the community and safe place to stay during the emergency. These locations would need to be island-able in terms of energy and water during the emergency.

The third phase of a resilience strategy generally aims to serve other services through distributed generation.

These locations would include a gas station, a bank, a pharmacy, a grocery store, allowing these services to also serve as shelters and a place to charge cell phones while the grid is down.

Action 1: Investigate a partnership with Panasonic CityNOW and COS on micro-grid pilots 

Internal meeting(s) on City Side involving key stakeholders to determine the location the pilots should take place.

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Meeting(s) with Panasonic CityNOW, step-by-step investigation of contractual, financial and other critical issues to initiate pilots.

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Timeline: Next 2 months (April – May 2018)

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: Ryan Trujillo

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Colorado Spring Utilities Coordinator: TBD

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Airport Coordinator: TBD

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Panasonic CityNOW Coordinator: Yun Lee, Alan Gotcher.

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Electrical Vehicle (EV) Strategy

ASPIRATIONAL Electrical Vehicle (EV) Strategy

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As Is Description The idea of using electricity for transport is not new. We have been using electricity for mass transport, such as railways and subways, for some time. However, that electricity has mostly been tapped from static infrastructure. Now we can carry electricity around in cars, making cars part of the smart grid through GPS and cellular network technologies. This intermingling and convergence of electricity, communications y and transport infrastructures must be managed, and provides a very interesting business opportunity for Colorado Springs Utility. The City of Colorado Springs will need to work in coordination with Colorado Springs Utility to successfully meet the needs of this emerging technology.

Electric cars have been romanticized for nearly two hundred years, since the first prototype developed in 1828. The electric car has not been invented by any one person, but rather evolved over time thorough a series of transcontinental breakthroughs.

Today there are two basic types of EVs commercially available, all-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles. All-electric vehicles include battery electric vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles. In addition to charging from the

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electrical grid, all EV types are charged in part by regenerative braking, which generates electricity from some of the energy normally lost when braking. 

All-electric vehicles run only on electricity. Most have all-electric ranges of 80 to 100 miles, while a few luxury models have ranges up to 250 miles. When the battery is 20% depleted, it can take from 30 minutes (with fast charging) up to nearly a full day/night (with Level 1 charging) to recharge it, depending on the type of charger and battery.

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Plug-in hybrids vehicles may be a better choice when the range of an all-electric vehicle is not sufficient. Hybrids run on electricity for shorter ranges (up to 40 miles), then switch over to running on their internal combustion engine when the battery is depleted. The flexibility of hybrids allows drivers to use electricity as often as possible while also being able to fuel up with gasoline as needed.

Traditionally, in the United States, electric cars were held back due to their limited range. Today, better more inexpensive batteries with higher capacities are challenging this limitation known as “range anxiety.”

The ultimate solution is a network of charging stations. Charging points are increasing nationally, and will dramatically increase with demand. The stations themselves are not all that expensive, at $3,000 to $7,000 per port depending on the brand, and there are a variety of tax rebates and incentives available to chip away at this cost. Nearly all Electric Cars can be easily programmed to charge off-peak, when the electricity is cheapest, or when the grid has an abundance of power due to a surplus of wind or solar energy. Apps such as PlugShare or ChargeHub point drivers to the nearest charging stations.

Therefore, a Colorado Springs Electric Vehicle Strategy should aim to: 

Respond to the growing demand for electric vehicle infrastructure and services,

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Encourage/support faster adoption of electric vehicles to aid in reducing emissions,

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Build partnerships across the State of Colorado to provide an electric vehicle charging network within the State that connects to neighboring regions,

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Establish what role the City, CSU, City Enterprises as well as partner organizations in the private sector should play in providing electric vehicle infrastructure and services, and

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Increase awareness and create enthusiasm amongst the public and industry about electric vehicles.

Projections for the electric car vary greatly. However, undoubtedly the EV market is gaining traction. It is obvious that a great race is underway to design the EV Model-T that will take over the market. Tesla, Dyson, Nissan, Apple and Google are all working on highly innovative designs. What remains to be seen is how the natural synergy between electric cars and self-driving cars will play-out as both become software platforms on four wheels. The rate of innovation in EVs guarantees the car of future is electric.

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Figure 32: Public charging stations in the Colorado Springs area (April 2018).

Anticipated Value of Solution Electric Vehicles have several advantages over conventional vehicles: 

Require less maintenance: EVs have fewer moving parts compared to internal combustion engine vehicles. Thus, EVs require less maintenance and have lower maintenance costs.

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Lower fuel costs: Powering vehicles with electricity from the grid reduces fuel costs, especially when EV electricity discounts are available from utilities.

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Lower emissions: EVs can also reduce the emissions that contribute to poor air quality. Charging EVs on renewable energy such as solar or wind minimizes indirect emissions.

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Improve safety: EVs are far less likely to catch fire when compared to fuel vehicles, have a lower center of gravity so are less likely to roll over, and generally have higher crash-test safety scores.

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Easy to use: Most of the time, EV owners do not have to go out of their way to ‘refuel’. Residential owners can plug-in their vehicle when they get home, and a fully charged battery is ready the next morning. Fleet vehicles can be charged using smart EV charging systems that offer maximum cost savings, thanks to advanced energy management tools.

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Less traffic: In some jurisdictions, there are efficiency gains from avoiding traffic with HOV lane incentives for EVs.

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Improve energy security: Since most electricity in the United States is produced from domestic energy sources, EVs also increase our country’s energy security by lowering our country’s reliance on petroleum, which makes the country less vulnerable to price spikes and supply disruptions.

Urgency to Move Forward Since 2016, Colorado has been lauded as the best state to buy a new electric car. 18 The State of Colorado has been a national leader in promoting electric vehicles with the passage of HB 1332 legislation, designed to make the state income tax credit for electric vehicles more effective at increasing EV sales. This bill made two major changes – simplifying the tax credit, and making the credits assignable, allowing them to function more like a point of sale rebate.

Colorado could have nearly 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030 19. To help the State of Colorado predict consumer demand for direct current fast charge (DCFC) stations, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a study in 2017 in partnership with the Regional Air Quality Council and the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Figure 33: NREL analyzed electric vehicle registration data to highlight early trends in the market, compared with sales forecasts predicting large growth in Colorado.

18 The Washington Post and Time Magazine.

19 The Denver Post.

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In January 2018, the Governor of Colorado released one of the most comprehensive plans to date to boost electric vehicle adoption based on funding made available from the Volkswagen emissions settlement. Despite the recent growth in Colorado’s EV market, the Colorado Electric Vehicle Plan notes that barriers to adoption remain lack of sufficient public charging, particularly EV fast-charging along major transportation corridors, and therefore targets funding specifically towards improving charging infrastructure in these corridors.

Framework for Anticipated Solution A holistic electric vehicle strategy should include direction on home and workplace charging, fleet purchases and public communications strategies.

In this section, we will focus on EV fleets since leading by example is important to the City of Colorado Springs.

Fleet operators such as the City, the Utility and the Airport, with depots that can be easily retrofitted for charging purposes are natural candidates for converting into all-electric trucks, vans and cars. For this reason, many logistics operators in North America, Asia and Europe, such as FedEx and UPS, are making the switch. As of 2017, China already had 80,000 electric buses. London’s iconic double-deckers will soon join the grid.

Whether the goal is reducing operating costs, cutting emissions and noise in the community, or improving fleet safety, there are several important factors facilities managers need to consider when adding EVs to a fleet: 1) EV incentives and other benefits. Several tax incentives available at both State and Federal levels for the purchase of EVs and EV charging equipment. In 2017, the Federal Government offered up to $7,500

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per household, and the State of Colorado had the highest EV tax incentives in the country, with a $5,000 rebate no matter the income. Updated information is located on the federal and state government energy websites. There are also grants available for cities who want to drive clean.

2) Availability of charging stations. The map above for public charging stations currently available within Colorado Springs. Visiting charging stations is recommended to better understand if they can be depended on to cover fleet needs. Red flags to watch out for include out-of-order alerts, regular blocking by gas-powered cars, and varying charge speed (especially with a solar charging).

3) Differences between plug-in hybrids and pure electric cars.

4) Range. Outside temperatures affect the range of all cars, but EV drivers will feel the sting most in extreme weather (hot and cold). This is because an EV battery does not deliver the driving range of a gas tank yet. Today, most EVs are capable of handling at least 73 miles on full charge. Range requirements will depend on frequency of trips, location of charging infrastructure, driving conditions and how drivers operate vehicles.

5) Recouping the Electric Car Premium. Like conventional vehicles on the market, the cost of an EV will range widely depending on the make and model. The initial procurement cost is higher for EV and Hybrid technologies, when compared to conventional vehicles. However, the total cost of ownership will be lower when factoring in lower maintenance costs and lower prices of electricity versus gasoline.

6) Cargo Capacity.

Battery degradation, common in the early days of EVs, is no longer a key issue with current models. Many electrified models, including Tesla Model S, the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, have been exemplary when it comes to retaining full battery power. Still, degradation of 10-15% is common in models like the Nissan Leaf after several years of operation. If buying used, fleet owners should look at the total charge capacity, which may fall below 80 miles on some first-generation EVs.

Next Steps The State of Colorado has announced an Electric Vehicle Strategy in January 2018 suggests a baseline requirements and programs may be implemented across Colorado. The EV strategy for the City of Colorado Springs should align with the State and Federal direction, and enable ongoing discussion with citizens and stakeholders.

There are several charging models available in the market today. They are not compatible with one another. It is recommended to align stakeholder engagement on City-level, collaborating and coordinating EV charging procurement decisions to ensure that charging infrastructure is compatible across the different EV models purchased to maximize the use of the investments.

As part of the City’s EV strategy it will be important to engage in city residents and businesses on their views on Home and Workplace Charging. A Public Charging Network Workshop is recommended where the community can discuss public charging infrastructure in Colorado Springs and what role the City and other organizations should play in providing public charging stations in Colorado Springs. This will help the city gather information

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on public charging stations and home/workplace charging, and hold targeted stakeholder workshops and oneon- stakeholder meetings as necessary.

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Coordinated Fiber Layout Infrastructure Strategy

ASPIRATIONAL Coordinated Fiber Layout Infrastructure Strategy

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As Is Description Huge investments are being made in worldwide to expand the country’s CIT infrastructure. Copper wires installed over the past 20 years or so are being replaced by optical fibers, the digital infrastructure of the future.

Robust fiber-optic networks are a critical step towards a connected SmartCOS. Broadband through fiber-optics is the digital infrastructure of the future. Optical fibers transmit signals at the speed of light without any deterioration in the quality of the information, no matter how far it travels. Today fiber is the quickest available way of transmitting large amounts of data. Fiber communications give almost unlimited possibilities for today's and, most importantly, the future’s services, business concepts and methods of work.

Many studies have shown that improving digital infrastructure deeply affects economic development – from innovation and development in businesses, to more effective health care and private consumption of streamed services such as TV, movies, music and online gaming.

Telecommunications infrastructure remains centralized and even undemocratic. Therefore, some municipal electric utilities entering the broadband space. Often, utilities can do this by leveraging their existing fiber network. Electricity distribution companies have access to customers, just as wireline phone companies and cable companies. Faced with declining power demand, and even grid defection, electricity utilities are choosing to diversity into internet services and entertainment services.

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Anticipated Value of Solution for COS Residents and Businesses Fiber optics pave the way for tomorrow’s innovations. It’s all about communicating at the speed of light – and opening unlimited opportunities for services, business models and ways of working in today’s and tomorrow’s society. Fiber optics are the digital infrastructure of the future.

Recent developments in technology and high-speed internet connections have led to new ways of consuming products and services. The Internet of Things means that more and more devices are becoming interlinked.

Smart watches, driverless cars and white goods that you can control via apps are just some of the smart devices developed in recent years.

By 2020 there will be 50 billion connected devices worldwide 20. These new technical innovations have been developed through collaboration between entrepreneurs, the public sector and university researchers in a context where technology is looked at in broader business terms and its value assessed from a social perspective.

Healthcare is one area where new technical innovations have proved to be particularly effective. The digitalization of the health sector (for example through telemedicine techniques that enable operations to be performed via video link) has been accelerating for years. However, only now are ground-breaking innovations starting to have a positive impact on large numbers of patients.

As the community becomes increasingly digitalized it is important that everyone, no matter where they live in Colorado Springs, has the same opportunities to access information and services online.

Case Study: The Socio-Economic Benefits of Investing in Fiber - Sweden Sweden is on the way to becoming the most connected country. As one of the countries with highest broadband coverage, with an open and competitively neutral network Sweden has some excellent competitive advantages. All service providers enjoy the same conditions.

The Swedish government aims that at least 95% of all households and businesses should have access to broadband with at least 100Mbps by the year 2020. The potential of fiber optics to improve high-speed internet connectivity is enormous, impacting every aspect of society.

The socio-economic benefits of investments in fiber optic infrastructure in the Stockholm region is now over $ 206 million21. The new network has led to lower broadband charges, increased property values, created jobs and reduced the cost of data and telecommunications for the local and county authorities.

Moreover, fiber infrastructure has unlocked innovative and impactful solutions. One example is in healthcare.

Sweden’s first digital health center opened in 2015. Patients identify themselves electronically on the center’s homepage, describe their ailments in writing and can choose to wait in the online “waiting room” or book an appointment with a doctor.

Consultations are then conducted in the form of a desktop video-conference. Patients do not need to travel to the health center or spend time among other unwell people in the waiting room. It is estimated that by 2020, 20 Ericsson.

21 Acreo Research Institute

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more than a fifth of the country’s 15 million primary doctor consultations will be conducted online. The center recently launched an app that enables patients to meet registered doctors using their smartphone.

Anticipated Value of Solution for CSU The power industry was for a long time protected from risks for capital formation because electric utilities were assumed to be natural monopolies. However, the public interest has changed. Technology and lower costs have enabled consumers to know have choice, and regulators have noticed that the possibility now exists to have fair competition amongst energy providers. Beyond joining the solar and battery-based electricity delivery business, one way utilities can increase revenues and future-enable their business model can be to enter the internet service delivery business leveraging their existing and future fiber assets.

Figure 34: Increased Utility Margins with Fiber-Related Services.22 Revenue Revenue Revenue Margin

Margin Cost

Margin Cost

Cost Today’s Regulated Business

Regulated with Renewables

Electricity + Fiber (Internet Services)

Economies of scale:

Economies of numbers:

Economies of numbers

Large scale generation for unit cost reduction.

+ business expansion by leveraging current assets – right of way, poles, cabling

Prices expected to rise due rising fuel costs, carbon pricing, demand drop and grid defection.

Up to 2020

2020 through 2030

2015 through 2040 and beyond.

Incumbent internet service providers – cable and telephone companies such as Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and perhaps Google Fiber – offer generally slow, asymmetric, consumption-centric, unfriendly and over-priced internet access, bundled with telephone and entertainment services. With high gigabit speeds provided by leveraging the fiber deployment of the AMI program, an electric utility like CSU could think about competing with these internet service providers and provide higher quality service for Colorado Springs residents who often complain about low speeds.

22 Bhave, Mahesh P., The Microgrid Revolution: Business Strategies for Next-Generation Electricity. 2016.

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Urgency to Move Forward A reliable and democratic fiber network is the backbone for most Smart City solutions, which rely on sensors and technology to collect data which can then be processed to make decisions – often in real time.

During the Pillar Process discussions, the topic of fiber has been deliberated at length. The conclusion to these conversations has been that both the City and CSU have laid out fiber for different purposes during the last few years. Some fiber is relatively new while other is quite old.

As a next step, an assessment should be made of where the fiber is located and if there are overlaps. A decision, in possible consultation with the City and Utility’s legal team, would then need to be made if it is possible to share fiber resources for Smart City related initiatives and what would be the boundaries / parameters that would need to be respected while opening opportunities for possible collaboration.

Framework for Anticipated Solution The design and planning of the fiber network expansion program, from project engineering and site supervision to financial documentation and inspections, requires a team of engineers to design the network architecture, ascertain that all the necessary permits are in order and assume full responsibility for the planning and execution of the project. As a rule of thumb, an experienced contractor should be able to connect four homes or business locations to the fiber network per hour.

Implementing a fiber network generally follows a clear step-by-step process: 1) Technical feasibility study, 2) Design layout and detailed drawings, 3) Construction (trenching and installation), and 4) Documentation of fiber-optic network.

Case Study: Fiber and the City of Chattanooga, Tennessee In 2005, the City of Chattanooga and its nonprofit municipal electric utility, Electric Power Board (EPB), installed a fiber optic network as part of its AMI program to modernize its electric system. The EPB grid consists of over 6,000 miles of electrical line over 170,000 components. This includes electrical meters, poles, and transformers.

Smart Grid functions much like a living organism, allowing components to communicate with one another in real-time. allows the grid to automatically report outages, and in many instances, repair itself without any human intervention at all.

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with The This

Once the fiber cables were deployed, it decided it could build its own internet service provider (ISP) business with the fiber-optic cable.

After careful consideration, the decision was made to expand the bandwidth of the smart grid network and offer internet services to city residences and businesses. As part of the initiative, EPB was awarded $111 million in smart grid funding by the US Department of Energy (DOE).

Instead of replicating the asymmetric broadband deployments of incumbent phone or cable companies, it deployed symmetric, 1-gbps bandwidth for customers, upstream and downstream. In 2008, EPB began offering internet, TV and phone services, and Comcast sued EPB claiming it was illegally subsidizing the buildout with tax-payer funds. After Comcast lost, both incumbents Comcast and AT&T began upgrading their services which had historically had very poor service and low speeds.

EPB built the fastest internet service infrastructure at the time in the United States, offering 1 gigabit per second bidirectional broadband for $70/month 23, while being one of the most reliable electric utilities in the country. The fiber infrastructure generated “incremental economic and social benefits ranging from $865.3 million to $1.3 billion while additionally creating between 2,800 and 5,200 new jobs” over the period of 2011 to 201524. Benefits to the electric side of the municipal utility included reduced outages and economies of scale in maintaining communication and electric networks.

Even though there can be legal and security challenges for using communication networks to service the electric grid and smart city communications, the City of Chattanooga is as a notable municipal effort. This case study outlines how a sufficient digital infrastructure can unlock equity, job creation and economic growth opportunities. Hence, it’s imperative for the City of Colorado Springs, in collaboration with Colorado Springs Utility and the private sector, make the creation of a digital infrastructure roadmap a priority.

Stakeholder alignment and collaboration towards digital high-quality infrastructure in Colorado Springs will be a big step forward in the right direction, and will allow otherwise natural competitors, like telecommunications companies and Google, to be brought into the discussion early.

Next Steps Step 1: Internal meetings between the City and Utilities to understand the path forward. 

Internal meeting(s) on City Side involving key stakeholders.

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Timeline: TBD

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Colorado Springs Coordinator: TBD

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Colorado Spring Utilities Coordinator:TBD

23 Bhave, Mahesh P., The Microgrid Revolution: Business Strategies for Next-Generation Electricity. 2016.

24 The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

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Substitute Generation Capacity with Renewables

ASPIRATIONAL Substitute Generation Capacity with Renewables

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As Is Description While the importance of investing in renewable energy has been a part of many discussions with the City and the Utility, this project domain has not explicitly been part of the Pillar Process. Nevertheless, renewable energy is an important cornerstone of any Smart City Strategy. Therefore, in this section we share some of the general trends and how they may be applied in Colorado Springs.

Procuring electricity generation soon will be no different from purchasing any home appliance that you can plug into a power outlet, except that instead of consuming energy, these generating appliances will produce electricity. There are several available technologies for generating clean energy. These options include solar, wind, micro-hydro and bio-fuels. In this section, we will focus on solar generation because the transformative impact of photovoltaics in a short time cannot be underestimated.

As of today, Colorado Springs Utilities will not meet its goal of producing 20 percent of its energy through renewable resources by 2020. However, CSU Board Members explain the utility is coming about as close as possible within the parameters outlined in its 2016 Electric Integrated Resource Plan.

In 2017, the CSU Board announced a plan to generate 100 megawatts of clean electricity through solar power infrastructure, which will cost about $3 million. The investment will mean an approximate .95 percent increase in utility customers' electric bills. The average monthly electric bill for a residence is about $70, therefore the

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impending monthly increase will equate to less than 70 cents for residents. The increase won't take effect until 2019, when the work is expected to be finished 25.

CSU Renewable Energy Incentive Programs To encourage the installation of solar PV generating systems at homes and businesses, Colorado Springs Utility (CSU) offers a renewable energy rebate for photovoltaics. Business and residential customers are eligible for a rebate. Depending on the installation, up to 40 percent of the total system cost could be covered by rebates and tax credits. In addition, CSU also has a net metering program through an interconnection agreement.

Through an application procedure online, Colorado Spring residents can qualify for rebates for residential solar domestic hot water and commercial solar thermal26.

Anticipated Value of Solution Renewable energy not only pollutes less than conventional generation sources such as fossil fuels, it diversifies the community’s energy supply, creates energy independence, and reduces the utility’s summer peak capacity requirements.

Furthermore, renewable energy has been proven to positive to for economic development. Compared with fossil fuel technologies, which are typically mechanized and capital intensive, the renewable energy industry is more labor intensive including wellpaid jobs in solar installation, manufacturing, and sales.

be

Local governments also benefit from clean energy, most often in the form of property and income taxes and other payments from renewable energy project owners. Owners of the land on which wind projects are built often receive lease payments ranging from $3,000 to $6,000 per megawatt of installed capacity 27, as well as payments for power line easements and road rights-of-way. They may also earn royalties based on the project’s annual revenues.

Urgency to Move Forward Many Smart City technologies need clean energy to function as designed. While investing in a fleet of electric vehicles for the City or an electric shared bike program will help improve with air quality issues, the full potential of this technology is not leveraged if electric transportation is going to be charged by coal-generated electricity.

25 The Gazette, “Colorado Springs Utilities Board OKs rate hike to increase solar energy share,” 20 Sept 2017.

26 https://www.csu.org/pages/renewable-energy.aspx 27 ucsusa.org

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Furthermore, using renewable energy as a solution specific tool can unlock savings and lower the costs of implementation because options such as solar generation can be implemented locally and without the heavy infrastructure costs of traditional power solutions.

Framework for Anticipated Solution Despite having “300 days of sunshine� and falling PV and battery prices, low electricity rates make the penetration of solar energy challenging in Colorado Springs due to a comparatively long return on investment compared to other regions of the United States.

If Colorado Springs is serious about shaving the peak load to accelerate the closing of Drake Coal Plant, one way to incentivize the use of solar energy is through variable pricing, where peak electricity rates are higher than at other times, or tiered pricing, where higher-usage tiers are much more costly than lower-usage tiers.

Combined with the upcoming capabilities unlocked by Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), customers can leverage the benefits of a home solar system with automated demand response solutions, by design.

Customers then have an attractive economic incentive to invest in reducing their peak load or higher-priced tier using solar panels and batteries. Utility representatives can then identify potential customers and offer to reduce their electricity bill through the installation of a rooftop solar or solar home system.

There are a variety of business models for financing, owning and operating these solar systems, and Colorado Springs Utilities must make then decide what portion(s) of this emerging business the municipal enterprise wants to manage within their purview.

Placing the ownership and/or operation of home solar systems within CSU would unlock the ability for the utility to enable dynamic control of a mesh of residential generation sources and leveraging the advantages of demand management. This inter-microgrid collaboration would also allow for information and power flow to reduce capital costs, enable resource sharing, and enhance their individual reliability.

One example of cost-savings for the community in a utility-operated model is that a utility would be able to more efficiently cover the costs of maintenance, supplies, and panel cleaning through economies of scale.

Another economic model, would be to leverage the ownership of substations to host solar panels, batteries and other generation sources and equipment. Combined with fiber and/or cellular networks, substations can become a focal point for additional utility services.

Figure 35: Fujisawa Smart & Sustainable Town by Panasonic in Japan. Residential solar plus storage in all 1000 homes makes possible self-creation and self-consumption of energy with 3 days of backup power.

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APPENDIX A: PANASONIC COLLABORATORS This Smart City strategy document was written by the following core team.

JARRETT WENDT Executive Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Jarrett is charged with leading Panasonic’s smart cities initiative CityNOW leveraging the strengths of Panasonic’s tremendous history in smart and sustainable solutions, including solar PV, battery energy storage, microgrids, traffic and mobility solutions, healthcare, and more. He also leads corporate partnerships for Panasonic providing large-scale solutions across Panasonic’s global portfolio.

SCOTT INGVOLDSTAD Vice President, CityNOW, Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Short Description. Scott acted as the Account Executive for this project.

KJELL PERSSON CEO inUse, ÅF Group Kjell is the CEO of inUse, the leading service design and user experience design consultancy company in Europe, with 100 employees. Throughout his career, Kjell has been spearheading methodology for change management and business development in a wide range of contexts, both public and private, both as employed and as a consultant. Kjell acted as the Pillar Process Executive for this project.

SALOMÉ BALDERRAMA Energy Consultant, Smart Grids & Utility Solutions, ÅF Group Salomé is a senior energy consultant in ÅF Group, a Swedish consultancy and infrastructure company in Europe, with 10,000 employees. Salomé is both an engineer and an architect, and nearly 15 years of experience with stakeholder alignment, energy efficiency, and smart grid projects in over 22 countries. Salomé acted as the Pillar Process Lead for this project.

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This Smart City strategy document was developed with the support of over 15 collaborators and subject matter experts (SMEs) in the Panasonic family. The following SMEs participated in meetings, prepared and presented workshops, and leaned-in the writing and review of this document.

GEORGE KARAYANNIS Director, CityNOW, Panasonic Enterprise Solutions George has over 25 years of emerging technology and sustainable solutions sales, business development, and marketing leadership at Fortune 100 firms and high-tech startups. He has implemented technologies such as autonomous shuttles and a CityWide IOT platform.

CHRIS ARMSTRONG Director, Smart Mobility, CityNOW, Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Chris leads the engineering, business, and marketing teams that are bringing autonomous and connected vehicle technology to Colorado and beyond. Chris provides program and technical direction to a diverse team of software developers, hardware engineers, solution architects, and systems engineers deploying V2X technology to improve safety and mobility for our customers.

YUN LEE Title, CityNOW, Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Description

MIKE HESS Vice President, Smart & Sustainable Buildings, CityNOW, Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Mike is a mechanical engineer with nearly 20 years of experience in energy efficiency, renewable energy, intelligent building controls, and sustainability. Mike led the design of Peùa Station NEXT’s energy and sustainability approach, including the micro-grid, electric vehicle infrastructure, PV, and demand response integration with the 2 MWH utility battery.

MATTHEW CROSBY Utility Solutions Program Manager, CityNOW, Panasonic Enterprise Solutions

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Matthew focuses on utility strategy and solutions for utilities. Matthew has held leadership roles at several utilities. At Austin Energy, he led program management for the residential electric vehicle program, and won a Department of Energy award to support regional electric vehicle charging infrastructure planning in Texas.

JOHN TOLVA Co-founder, CityFi John is a co-founder of CityFi Advisors, a strategic consulting firm dedicated to enabling smart, sustainable decision-making for cities. He brings experience in urban systems engineering based on data driven planning for new building design, retrofits, and urban design.

MICHAEL WIEBE WES (Cameras) ALAN (energy storage, microgrids) EASYMILE x2 TOM – SMART PARKING MASABI x 3 LUNERA SMART KIOSKS WI-FI solution John G. (kiosks) John S. Paul S. (lighting) Jim Doyle

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APPENDIX B: CITY COLLABORATORS

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