Energy management and planning in smart cities

Smart cities provide citizens with information on various urban services and allow them to track the impact of their resource consumption on the overall sustainability of their city. Energy management is one of the most demanding issues within such urban centres owing to the complexity of the energy systems and their vital role. Therefore, significant attention and effort need to be dedicated to this problem. This study introduces a theoretical planning and operation models within the smart city by classifying roles distribution system operators (DSOs) into six main intervention areas: parameters and resource availability, system costs, geolocation characteristics, energy prices, regulatory constraints and energy demand. More-complex urban energy models integrating more than one intervention area are also reviewed, outlining their advantages and energy demand, existing trends and challenges, and some relevant applications. Finally, a methodology for developing an improved energy model in the smart city context is proposed, along with some additional final recommendations.