Smart Cities Smart Energy

These are excellent examples of how ICT infrastructure can be used in a horizontal way, allowing organisations to cut through silo-based systems, and enabling councils and whole industry sectors to strategically transform their organisations based on a clear vision of their future. In order to develop the city/community as a new social and economic platform collaboration between all levels of government, citizens, private industry and the R&D community is essential.

Unlocking Grid Flexibility and harnessing Distributed Energy Resources for a Sustainable Energy Future.

My earlier two articles (here and here) on the symbiosis between energy and IT (telecoms, AI, data centres) triggered a discussion with my American colleagues on ‘Grid flexibility and Distributed Energy Resources’. They mentioned the interesting developments in the USA  shaped by ambitious net zero goals set at the State levels and an unprecedented  US$40

Unlocking Grid Flexibility and harnessing Distributed Energy Resources for a Sustainable Energy Future. Read More »

Lost decade of electricity policies could lead to shortage of electricity.

Back in 2001 I launched the UtiliTel Project. This was before there were plans for the NBN. The electricity utility companies were looking at using their infrastructure to start building fibre optic networks. They established several companies around the country dedicated to the development of telecoms networks. However, by 2006, the focus from the utility

Lost decade of electricity policies could lead to shortage of electricity. Read More »

Optimising data centres: A quest for sustainable and secure infrastructure

In the digital age, where information and connectivity are paramount, the demand for data storage and processing is surging to unprecedented heights. As people and businesses increasingly rely on the internet, the need for efficient data centres has become more critical than ever. One of the negative outcomes of Australia’s lost decade in energy preparation

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Blockchain in the Power Industry: another Energy Revolution

As we all know it,  because of the rising costs of energy, the power industry is one of the most important sectors in the economy. It is responsible for providing electricity to homes, businesses, and other critical infrastructure. However, the power industry is also facing a number of challenges, including rising demand, aging infrastructure, and

Blockchain in the Power Industry: another Energy Revolution Read More »

Smart Cities vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) has issued a new set of guidelines warning about the security risks posed by the use of 5G technology in so-called Smart Cities. The ASD’s concerns align with those of the Five Eyes security alliance, which has warned that the interconnected nature of a fully connected city makes it vulnerable

Smart Cities vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Read More »

Tele-Energy Technology

TELE-ENERGY, or more accurately wireless power transfer, is a generic term for a number of different technologies for transmitting energy by means of electromagnetic fields. Wikipedia describes it as follows: ‘A transmitter device, driven by electric power from a power source, generates a time-varying electromagnetic field, which transmits power across space to a receiver device,

Tele-Energy Technology Read More »

Dutch solar foil to turn Australia into a major hydrogen exporter

One of my Dutch colleagues, Vincent Dekker, has specialised himself over the years in sustainable energy matters and with his interest in smart technologies, I have been following his articles with interest.  His articles appear on the website of the Dutch newspaper, Trouw. Of course, when he included Australia in one of his articles, I

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C-V2X standard for autonomous vehicle services

Around 20 years ago, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in the USA allocated 75 MHz (5.85-5.925 GHz) to Intelligent Transportation Systems. This led to the dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) standard, 802.11p, which is a tweak of 802.11a. Approximately zero cars adopted it. There were demo projects and some roadside units were built, but it never

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Also, with electric vehicles Australia is trailing the world.

We have had former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s “kill the NBN” policy, Scott Morrison bringing a lump of coal into the Parliament and then-Small Business Minister Michaelia Cash tried to scare Australian ute drivers by proclaiming they would be obliterated by electric vehicles (EVs). Scott Morrison also questioned the need for big batteries, which he

Also, with electric vehicles Australia is trailing the world. Read More »

Connected Farms

Late last year I wrote an article on e-agriculture activities based on my trip into outback Queensland Agriculture ICT and travelling in Outback Queensland. I received this follow up from Tom Andrews from Connected Farms. I recall that last October you did an excellent article about the importance of connectivity for the  Australian farming sector

Connected Farms Read More »

Massive renewable energy projects underpinned by ICT technologies

In the mid to late 2000s, I set up the industry association Smart Grid Australia (SGA). The reason why I became involved in the smart energy sector was that earlier that decade I had established the industry group UtiliTel. At that time, Telstra was reluctant to go even beyond the integrated services digital network (ISDN)

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Smart Regional Towns – Game changers for reginal and rural Australia

Developments in telecommunications and technology are key to creating more liveable regional centres. At the recent CommsDay Summit, two interesting Low Earth Orbiting Satellites (LEOsat) services were mentioned. . A few months ago I wrote an extensive article on this subject., which provides some global background information on these satellite development. At the conference, Michael

Smart Regional Towns – Game changers for reginal and rural Australia Read More »

Smart cities want to co-design change with Telcos

With 5G earmarked as a game-changer for cities, wireless technologies are already widely deployed by Australia’s leading smart cities. However, cities do not want to be locked into proprietary technology solutions, rather seeing themselves as a platform on which many organisations can build infrastructure, applications and services for the benefit of all citizens and all

Smart cities want to co-design change with Telcos Read More »

City-as-a-service – new business and investment model

While there are plenty of opportunities for local councils to create cost savings – especially by cutting through their internal silos and using ICT and infrastructure technologies on a sharing basis across the various city systems – the problem remains that before these cost savings can be made, significant ICT investments are needed. The reality

City-as-a-service – new business and investment model Read More »

New push for cheaper energy costs and a much more efficient energy industry.

As the initiator of Smart Energy Australia in 2007, I looked with the experts of this industry association at how we could use technologies to make our energy system more efficient, cheaper, and less polluting. Of course, this included the arrival of renewable energy and technology developments in areas such as microgrids, distributed energy and

New push for cheaper energy costs and a much more efficient energy industry. Read More »

Digital economy essential for regional Australia

Back in the early 1990s, I was a founding board member of Service Providers Action Network (SPAN), which later became part of Communications Alliance. The key aim of this organisation was the promotion of new value-added services that could be provided over the telecommunications network. At this time there was no public internet and we

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Building independent Gig Cities: this happens when you have a 2nd rate NBN

Adelaide was one of the first cities to build a gigabit fibre optic network but soon others followed. Newcastle, Wollongong, Launceston and the NSW Central Coast Council are now all developing their own gigabit infrastructure. Now, the NSW Government is putting $100 million dollars aside for the provision of “innovative systems” to improve the price,

Building independent Gig Cities: this happens when you have a 2nd rate NBN Read More »

Broadband driven Smart Energy Developments

There is no doubt that we are in the midst of an energy revolution. Not only is the nature of energy changing from fossil-generated energy to renewable – there is a total change in the distribution structure occurring with less focus on centralisation and more on distributed energy. Concerns about issues such as energy security,

Broadband driven Smart Energy Developments Read More »

Smart devices ready to flood the energy market to force prices down.

Over the last decade there have been excellent reports from the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) as well as from various industry bodies on reforming the energy market. The reports state this should be done through opening the market up to modernisation, more competition, better interoperability arrangements and better levels of transparency, all based on

Smart devices ready to flood the energy market to force prices down. Read More »

Successful smart cities require significant ICT infrastructure

Telecommunications infrastructure plays an important role in providing the backbone for building the Smart Cities and Smart Homes which are emerging around the world. It is encouraging to see that so many governments and telecoms operators are working hard and investing heavily to deploy this underlying infrastructure which we will need for the future. Fixed-broadband

Successful smart cities require significant ICT infrastructure Read More »

Successful smart cities require significant ICT infrastructure

Telecommunications infrastructure plays an important role in providing the backbone for building the Smart Cities and Smart Homes which are emerging around the world. It is encouraging to see that so many governments and telecoms operators are working hard and investing heavily to deploy this underlying infrastructure which we will need for the future. Fixed-broadband

Successful smart cities require significant ICT infrastructure Read More »

Smart Energy Exchanges – engaging consumers in the electricity market.

During my time as director of Smart Grid Australia and the Global Smart Grid Federation I often used my experience from the telecoms industry to look at new opportunities in the smart energy market. While I started to talk about distributed energy infrastructure over a decade ago, nothing much has happened in the meantime. The

Smart Energy Exchanges – engaging consumers in the electricity market. Read More »

Macau’s smart city project gains momentum

Macau boasts a sophisticated, independently regulated communications market. Gradual liberalisation has now fully opened the telecoms market with the full impact slowly becoming evident. Fixed line subscriptions in Macau continue to fall. Macau’s fixed-line market is transitioning to a fibre broadband market as CTM invests significantly in fibre access networks, a project made possible given

Macau’s smart city project gains momentum Read More »

Barcelona’s Smart City Strategist visiting Australia

As the Digital Business Strategist for the Barcelona City Council, Joaquim Alvarez has been instrumental in helping transform the City of Barcelona into what Fortune Magazine recently called the Most Wired City in the World. Joaquim comes from a telecommunication engineering background, and is a specialist in software development and telematics communications. His passion for

Barcelona’s Smart City Strategist visiting Australia Read More »

High-speed broadband infrastructure plays an important role in Smart Cities

  With the majority of citizens living in urban centres around the world, there has been a growing interest in ensuring these highly concentrated populations are living in the most sustainable and efficient environments possible. Smart Cities offer the ability to manage our growing populations and the limited resources and environmental issues we face. In

High-speed broadband infrastructure plays an important role in Smart Cities Read More »

Australian/New Zealand ‘Smart Urban Solutions’ mission to the Netherlands

Following the Smart City mission from the Netherlands that coincided with the visit of the Dutch Royal Couple in November 2016, earlier this month a combined Australian/New Zealand ‘Smart Urban Solutions’ mission visited the  Netherlands. The week-long visit focused on urban (re)development, smart mobility, the future of energy and sustainable building and innovative solutions created

Australian/New Zealand ‘Smart Urban Solutions’ mission to the Netherlands Read More »

National Plan of Settlement: Good content – wrong strategy

I must have missed the run-up to this and so was surprised when the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities last week published a report called National Plan of Settlement. According to this report Australia needs a national plan to encourage denser, better-connected and more sustainable cities. Among its 37 recommendations are two

National Plan of Settlement: Good content – wrong strategy Read More »

Smart Armenia – suggestion for a national approach

Last month I was honoured to be invited to be the special guest at BreakFAST, a Sunday morning breakfast meeting organised by Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST) in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, this allowed me to share my telecoms and smart city insights with a group of select government, business and academic

Smart Armenia – suggestion for a national approach Read More »

Big data portal for smart cities – and indeed a smart country

After Iceland, back in the Netherlands again and, as promised, a bit more information from this part of the world. It certainly is not just Amsterdam that is active in smart cities. In this article I will point to some 40+ local councils in the Netherlands that are providing smart city information. Setting an example

Big data portal for smart cities – and indeed a smart country Read More »

A new smart suburb for the city of Helmond in the Netherlands

The city council of Helmond (a city in the south of the Netherland, close to Eindhoven) has approved plans for the construction of their Brainport Smart District (BSD). They will start with the preparation for its first projects, the building of around 1,500 new homes in a totally new suburb; a 12-hectare industrial estate will

A new smart suburb for the city of Helmond in the Netherlands Read More »

Will 5G trigger smart city PPP collaboration?

As discussed in previous analyses, the arrival of 5G will trigger a totally new development in telecommunications. Not just in relation to better broadband services on mobile phones – it will also generate opportunities for a range of IoT (internet of things) developments that among other projects are grouped together under smart cities (feel free

Will 5G trigger smart city PPP collaboration? Read More »

Long-term investment opportunities in smart cities

Questions for the investment community The federal government’s Smart City Plan, with a follow-up $75 million in grants as well as its City Deals, is stimulating a more strategic approach towards smart cities. In all, there are a dozen cities in Australia that have a solid smart strategy in place, backed up by high-level city

Long-term investment opportunities in smart cities Read More »

Smart cities should be based on social considerations

While there is a general positive vibe regarding smart cities ther are also serious concerns about the way developments are currently taking place. This has mainly to do with a general lack of a people-focussed strategy – in particular in relation to social elements and personal morals, beliefs and emotions. We have been following what

Smart cities should be based on social considerations Read More »

Call for national smart city collaboration and the formation of the Council of Smart City Mayors

With the announcement of the  government’s first smart city grants in WA and the NT – with others to follow soon – it is time to start looking at national smart city collaboration in order to achieve a maximum outcome from the funds that are made available and to ensure that we don’t simply end

Call for national smart city collaboration and the formation of the Council of Smart City Mayors Read More »

Smart City World Congress Barcelona: Dutch Australian Collaboration

A key reason for my participation in the Smart City World Congress in Barcelona was to further work on international smart city collaboration that was started exactly a year ago at the Dutch Australian Smart City Summit in Sydney, which was attended by Her Majesty Queen Maxima of the Netherlands. Since that time there have

Smart City World Congress Barcelona: Dutch Australian Collaboration Read More »

The Smart City Expo World Congress 2017 in Barcelona

The Global Smart City and Community Coalition (GSC3) is running the famous Holland Pavilion (those who have been in Barcelona before, know what I mean 😊. At the GSC3 stand also the eight Australian GSC3 cities will be on display: Adelaide, Bendigo, Canberra, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Sydney, Ipswich and Moreton Bay. Several representatives of these

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Cost savings on petrol could propel EVs in Australia

There recently have been reports in the Australian media about a report from the Australian Institute that the country is internationally lagging in the sale of electric vehicles (EVs). Only 0.1% of all cars sold in Australia were electric in 2015 (just over 1100 new EVs were bought here), compared with 23% of all new

Cost savings on petrol could propel EVs in Australia Read More »

Australia progressing as a major APAC data centre hub

BuddeComm describes ‘big data’ as looking at intelligent outcomes that can be achieved from data collaboration. The most critical issue here is strategic management, rather than technology. Big data has become a vital tool as competition is forcing many companies to transform their organisations from a company-centric approach to a customer-centric one. The fact that

Australia progressing as a major APAC data centre hub Read More »

The end of the Foxtel wars

The announcement of the proposed merger of Foxtel with Fox Sport Australia, combined with Telstra’s agreement to dilute its shareholding in the pay TV operator, paves the way for the end of the Foxtel war between News Corp Australia (formerly News Limited) and Telstra.  The decline in revenue and subscriber numbers will most certainly have

The end of the Foxtel wars Read More »

Various drivers are propelling Smart City developments

The impetuous towards developing Smart Cities can be driven by a number of factors. It may be that citizens, who have increasingly becoming accustomed to the convenience of services being made available through the internet and through apps on their smart phones and tablets become frustrated when ICT services and infrastructure aren’t keeping up. This

Various drivers are propelling Smart City developments Read More »

Smart Cities: Technologies, Challenges and Future Prospects

As you can see below I am one of the authors of this publication. On behalf of the publishers,  I can offer a 20% discount on any pre-orders of the book  (I am not receiving any royalties nor do I have any other financial interest in this publication). There are several different definitions of “smart cities”

Smart Cities: Technologies, Challenges and Future Prospects Read More »

Update on Singapore’s journey towards a smart nation

Just over two years ago Singapore announced its proposals for a program which was entitled Smart Nation. The ambitious project was designed in order to fasten the city, residents and government into a new digital age of innovation and industry. Singapore is making the bold transition from a successful city to Smart Nation. It already

Update on Singapore’s journey towards a smart nation Read More »

Smart Homes

Back in 1980 when I still lived in the Netherlands I worked with the Dutch futurist Griet Titulaer (an astronomer by trade) in building ‘The Home of the Future’. I would say that at that stage it was more built around innovative interior design with automation features. Home entertainment also played a key role in

Smart Homes Read More »

360VR video of Australia’s leading smart cities

Last November the Global Smart Communities and Cities Coalition (GSC3) started to set up partnerships with Australian cities. ASCA was one of the first organisations who signed a MoU with GSC3 in the presence of the Queen Maxima of the Netherlands during the Australian – Netherlands Smart City Summit co-hosted by ASCA. GSC3 was back

360VR video of Australia’s leading smart cities Read More »

Golden Ratio statues presented to five Australian smart city organisations

At the Dutch Australian Smart City Summit that I organised today, five Australian smart city organisations have received the Golden Ratio statue in recognition for their future collaboration with the Global Smart City and Community Coalition (GSC3). The presentation followed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the GSC3 and the Australian Smart

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Hello from Amsterdam

This time to report, not on developments in the Netherlands, but on the progress of the Dutch Smart City mission that will be arriving in Australia at the end of October. This year is the 400th anniversary of the landing of Dirk Hartog in what is now Shark Bay, Western Australia. He placed an inscribed pewter

Hello from Amsterdam Read More »

From DSL to FttN, G.FAST, Fttdp, XG-FAST – building the NBN the tortuous way

In September 2016, NBN Co indicated its interest in a technology known as XG.Fast, it is a next level up from the G.Fast technology they started to trial in 2015 and it also needs to be seen in the yet still bigger picture of Fttdp (fibre to the distribution point). The development and deployment of

From DSL to FttN, G.FAST, Fttdp, XG-FAST – building the NBN the tortuous way Read More »

Tesla doing a Google in the Australian electricity industry?

Back in 2001 I established Utilitel, an industry alliance of all the major electricity companies in Australia. The initial set-up was aimed at looking at business opportunities for the utilities in the telecoms industry and over the subsequent years various new telecoms businesses were established by the utilities. Obviously this was a tough market and

Tesla doing a Google in the Australian electricity industry? Read More »

The complexity of multifunctional smart city projects

One of the so-called low-hanging fruits in smart city plans is street lighting. Significant savings can be achieved by replacing the existing system with LED light and allowing for the management of light contingent on the level of traffic. This, of course, also results in cost savings. I discussed the street lighting project with my

The complexity of multifunctional smart city projects Read More »

Trans sector meeting with Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs

The following is a translation of the press release that was issued by the Ministry after my meeting with Minister Frank Heemskerk in 2009 whereby I officially presented him with a copy of the Big Think Report on Trans Sector Thinking. The Minister, on June 3rd met with Paul Budde to discuss broadband policies. Minister

Trans sector meeting with Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Read More »

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