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Energy efficiency and sustainability: the role of Artificial Intelligence

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Energy efficiency and sustainability - the role of Artificial Intelligence

From the number of news items and headlines that have been making headlines, it seems clear that energy efficiency and sustainability are not a trivial issue in recent times. The energy sector has been undergoing major changes with the emergence of technologies such as electric vehicles and home automation. To all this we must add the paradigm shift brought about by Covid-19. The pandemic has led to greater dependence on the electricity grid due to teleworking, online teaching and remote access to different services.

The issue of sustainability has not been overlooked in the European Union either, which is beginning to take action. An example of this is the commitment to the Green Pact as a mechanism to work against climate change and high emissions.

Moreover, as we have commented on numerous occasions on the Future Space blog, we live in the age of data. This boom is not going to be inconsequential in the field of energy efficiency and sustainability, in fact it is of vital importance. The ingestion and processing of data is vital to obtain information and develop models that help sustainable management.

Energy efficiency

It is clear that, as on most occasions where large amounts of data are involved, AI takes a leading role. We will therefore discuss below the most significant applications of AI in this field.

Artificial Intelligence applications in the field of energy efficiency and sustainability

We will now comment on those applications or use cases that have become more relevant in recent times.

Waste management

In recent decades we have experienced rapid population growth and urbanisation. This growth in turn has brought with it an increase in waste generation. The development of efficient and sustainable collection services has therefore become one of the issues to be considered. 

At the same time, the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) has allowed for almost absolute connectivity with all types of devices. When it comes to urban furniture, sensor technology makes it possible to ingest data in real time from this type of element.

Thanks to the availability of this data and to tools such as Operations Research and Machine Learning, we can develop a collection system that allows us to Machine Learning we can elaborate a collection system that allows:

  • Follow optimal collection routes that avoid unnecessary trips that lead to increased pollution and fuel costs.
  • Detailed attention to those points or containers that are overflowing or at the limit of their capacity. This enables optimum levels of sanitation to be maintained at all times.
  • Inform citizens about the status of the containers and the planned collection times.
Waste management
Waste management

Home and building automation

As we mentioned in the previous section, the IoT has allowed us to take data accessibility to the next level. In this case, it allows us to draw up sustainable building plans. Sensors in meters, household appliances and other elements of modern buildings allow us to obtain real-time measurements that feed algorithms based on Artificial Intelligence. Through these algorithms we are able to predict demand, manage controllable loads and optimise the management of the renewable units installed in these buildings, thus achieving practically zero energy consumption.

Home and building automation
Home and building automation

At the same time, home automation and control of the different devices allows the owners themselves to have remote and streaming access to the information of these elements. Thanks to this, the user can be aware of how optimal the use of their devices is in terms of energy and economy, as well as making decisions about it.

Electrical fraud detection

Access to customers' historical consumption data allows electricity and gas companies to detect irregularities or fraud both in their own consumption and in their customers' installations. This information is complemented with other variables such as, for example, the location of the meter, the type of home, type of bill, etc. All this information, once processed, allows the development of supervised Machine Learning models that detect the irregularities mentioned above.

In addition, the study of this data yields useful information to find anomalous behaviour, for example in household appliances, through patterns of consumption peaks, study of usual times of high and low consumption, etc.

Electric vehicles

Vehicles are undoubtedly one of the main beneficiaries of the data era. Their applications are as important as they are striking, and both autonomous driving and the replacement of fossil-fuelled cars with electric-powered ones seem to be a matter of major importance and impact in the coming years. 

We are already well advanced in the development of electric vehicles. The real challenge now lies in the integration of this type of vehicles in cities. In this sense, Artificial Intelligence, together with other leading technologies, such as Blockchain are crucial and help us in use cases such as the following:

  • Digital passport. A car identifier that digitally stores information such as mileage, accidents suffered, driving patterns, technical inspections, etc. Furthermore, by using a decentralised gateway such as Blockchain , we can avoid scams in the sale and purchase of vehicles, such as falsifying the real mileage of the car.
  • Optimisation of the distribution network. The increase in electric vehicles has a strong impact on the energy distribution network. Consequently, it is necessary to create a platform that allows charging point operators to efficiently manage the charging requests of all vehicles and ensure that they meet their needs without exceeding the capacity of the distribution network. This is where a smart electric vehicle charging infrastructure based on a Blockchain platform comes into play. Once the car user provides the charging demand and maximum charging time, the vehicle's charging flexibility is determined and utilised through smart charging to achieve a stable grid.
Electric vehicles
Electric vehicles

Smart City Concept

Smart cities are those in which information and communication technologies (ICT) are applied with the aim of providing them with infrastructures that guarantee: Sustainable development. An increase in the quality of life of citizens. Greater efficiency of available resources.

All the use cases discussed have a common denominator: to create sustainable environments, economically, socially and environmentally. Putting all these environments together, we can talk directly about Smart Cities. Taking into account the seriousness of the problems that Smart Cities come to solve, it seems obvious that their development is imminent and a priority. In fact, it is something that has been in the making in Spain for some time now in numerous cities such as Barcelona, Malaga, Gijón and a long list of other cities. 

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